FLASH: Plane piloted by Howard Hughes crashes in Beverly Hills
As depicted in ‘The Aviator’ (2004)
The Los Angeles Times (July 8, 1946)
Howard Hughes near death after plane hits four houses
Test flight ended by crash, fire
Howard Hughes, millionaire airplane manufacturer, oilman, motion-picture producer and one of the most famous civilian pilots aviation has ever known, was injured critically yesterday when he crashed in Beverly Hills while flying his experimental Army photographic plane on its maiden flight.
Hughes, doing his own test-hopping, appeared to have tried to reach the Los Angeles Country Club golf course on which he apparently intended to crash-land the twin-engine airplane.
Believed flying low
According to actor Dennis O’Keefe, who witnessed the entire episode from his home at 802 N. Linden Drive, the plane appeared to have been flying at an extremely low altitude, judging from the sound of the approaching engines.
Hughes fell about 300 feet short of the golf course, however, in his treetop-clipping attempt. The gigantic photographic plane, both its powerful engines whining, tore more than half the roof from a two-story dwelling at 803 N. Linden Drive, occupied by Dr. Jules Zimmerman, a dentist.
Simultaneously, the plane’s right wing sliced through the upstairs bedroom of the home next door to Zimmerman’s at 805 N. Linden Drive, narrowly missing the occupants, Jerry De Kamp and his wife Elizabeth, who were in the room at the time.
Bursts into flames
Caroming off the garage in the rear of the De Kamp residence the XF-11 continued its swath of devastation, slicing through a line of poplar trees bounding the rea of 808 Whittier Drive, the home of Lt. Col. Charles A. Meyer, interpreter at the war crimes trials in Europe, and burst into flames as it crashed into the Meyer home.
One of the plane’s tremendous radial engines, torn from its mounts by the impact, hurtled more than 60 feet through the air, passing through the Meyer home, tearing a gash through the corner of a home at 810 Whittier Drive, owned by Gosta B. Guston, retired Swedish industrialist, and finally came to rest on the Guston lawn.
Hughes was saved from death as the plane exploded into flames by Marine Sgt. William Lloyd Durkin, stationed at the El Toro Marine Base, and Capt. James Guston, 22, son of the industrialist and recently released from the Army.
Sleeper in narrow escape
Mrs. Katherine Guston, wife of the industrialist, narrowly escaped injury and possible death as she lay sleeping in a bedroom just above the dining room where the plane’s engine sliced through in its flight. Her pet Pomeranian, Tido, was injured by flying glass and splinters.
Firemen summoned to the scene by O’Keefe encountered additional hazards from explosions emanating from the plane itself and broken gas mains leading into the Meyer house. One gas main, which became “bottled up” and exploded, sent a tower of flame shooting more than 80 feet into the darkening sky.
The firemen, who battled the blaze for more than three hours, were able to save only a small portion of the Meyer home, and declared the house to be “almost totally destroyed.” Property damage to the residences was unofficially estimated at more than $100,000.
Loses consciousness
Hughes was taken to the Beverly Hills Emergency Hospital where, according to Beverly Hills Det. John Hankins, Dr. J. C. Murray, in charge, reported the millionaire sportsman suffered a broken left leg, a deep gash over the left ear, third-degree burns on the left hand, a possible broken back and a possible skull fracture. Dr. Murray gave him a “50-50” chance to live.
Hughes was reported to have been conscious upon arrival at the hospital and to have almost laconically remarked, “I’m Howard Hughes.” Later, however, he lost consciousness and was placed under an oxygen tent. A half hour later he was removed to Good Samaritan Hospital for surgery under the care of Drs. Lawrence Chaffin and Verne Mason.
First x-rays showed that in addition to the injuries and possible fractures listed above, Hughes has one lung punctured in six places, eight broken ribs and a broken nose. The physicians reported that, despite the seriousness of his injuries, the famous flyer was “resting and talking rationally.”
At 5:25 p.m. yesterday the XF-11, Hughes alone at the controls, lifted easily under the pull of its two eight-bladed counter-rotating propellers. A handful of company officials and newspapermen watched the latest Hughes creation. One hour and 18 minutes later the ship was a mass of junk which attracted an estimated throng of 8,000 persons to watch its cremation.
Engineer leaves plane
Perhaps the luckiest man connected with the maiden flight was an unidentified Hughes engineer who sat at the controls with Hughes while the former ran his ship through three taxi runs and seven practice “hops” during which the revolutionary plane was lifted from the Hughes airstrip near Culver City for a few seconds each time.
Before the actual takeoff Hughes stopped the plane, opened the belly-door and let his associate out of the navigator’s seat to the ground.
Waving to the crowd and to his former companion, the flier, who has made more aviation records than you can count on the fingers of both hands, took off casually on what may well be the last Howard Hughes flight on this earth.
Holds air records
It was nothing new for Hughes to handle the maiden flight of one of his own creations. The 40-year-old, slightly deaf, handsome bachelor, whose fortune has been estimated at $125,000,000, had done it many times before. Back in 1935 he constructed his own plane and with it established a transcontinental speed record of nine hours and 41 minutes.
Hughes crashed twice before. In January 1928, when he was 22, a World War I Sopwith he was piloting crashed from 200 feet in Inglewood. He received minor hurts. In May, three years ago, his twin-engined flying boat dived into Lake Mead and two men were killed and Hughes and two others were hurt. Hughes’ injuries again were not serious.
Great things had been expected from this hip, which Hughes built in cooperation with the U.S. Air Forces Materiel Command. Power from the two 3,000 hp radial engines was expected to take it to speeds in excess of 400 mph at a service celling of 40,000 feet. Nobody, except Hughes, knows what it will do now. It is problematical if Hughes will ever be able to tell. The plane had a wingspread of 101 feet 4 inches and an overall length of 65 feet 5 inches.
Weird noise heard
In addition to O’Keefe, the crash was witnessed by J. A. Harrison, 1331 Longwood Ave., a telephone company employee, who said he was the telephone building at 400 Foothill Rd., Beverly Hills, when he heard the plane go by.
“It sounded very close and the noise was weird,” he said. “So I rushed to the window and saw what appeared to be a mammoth P-38 moving very slowly in a northwest direction. Then it crashed.”
The weird sound probably came from the new-type propellers, but O’Keefe said the sound indicated to him that Hughes had “wound up” his engines to the maximum in an effort to climb.
Took to flying early
Hughes first took up aviation in his early 20’s and soon thereafter was in the thick of it, making a name for himself with speed flights across country and, in 1938, with his around-the-world flight in three days, 10 hours and 17 minutes.
As early as 1935 he had set speed records of more than 352 mph. In January 1938, he established his first transcontinental record of 9 hours 27 minutes 10 seconds. He started building his own planes in the early 1930s, culminating with the construction of the government-financed $20,000,000 boat, the Hercules, now being assembled at Long Beach Harbor.
The Evening Star (July 8, 1946)
Howard Hughes given chance for survival after test plane crash
Fastest long-range ship hits three houses and garage in Beverly Hills
LOS ANGELES (AP) – His skull fractured, collar bone and seven ribs broken, Howard Hughes was given a fighting chance to live today after crashing an experimental plane into three houses and a garage in Beverly Hills late yesterday.
The millionaire moviemaker and plane builder was reported “resting easily” in Good Samaritan Hospital. Physicians said the degree of shock suffered by the 41-year-old sportsman in the next 24 to 48 hours would be the determining factor.
Mr. Hughes also suffered a fractured nose, lacerations of the scalp, and a puncture wound in the left knee.
Contrary to earlier reports. Mr. Hughes’ lungs were not punctured, but doctors said X-rays disclosed that he was suffering from “crush injuries to the lungs themselves.”
Two blood transfusions
Mr. Hughes underwent a blood transfusion last night, another this morning, was resting fairly comfortably in an oxygen tent, and was conscious at intervals.
Mr. Hughes’ plane, the XF-11, unofficially reported to be the fastest long-range craft ever constructed, exploded immediately after the crash. Mr. Hughes was alone in the test hop.
Aided by Marine Sgt. William L. Durkin, Mr. Hughes staggered from the burning wreckage, was rushed to Beverly Hills Emergency Hospital and transferred to Good Samaritan for surgery and treatment in an oxygen tent.
Conscious for half-hour
He was conscious for half an hour after the crash. When he arrived at emergency hospital, he calmly announced himself: “I’m Howard Hughes.” Shortly afterward he collapsed.
Mr. Hughes’ plane had been in the air an hour and one-half. He had radioed the control tower at Burbank Airport that his landing gear was not functioning, and at dusk Glen Odekirk, general manager of the Howard Hughes Corp., took off in an A-20 to search for him.
Twenty-five minutes before the crash, Mr. Hughes radioed that he was having engine trouble. He said he was going to try to make an emergency landing on the Los Angeles Country Club course. That was the last message from him.
With a terrific “swooshing” noise, the XF-11, designed for reconnaissance photography, plunged onto a rooftop, bounded onto another roof, smashed a garage and struck another house, setting all afire, before virtually burying itself in a vacant lot. Its fuel tanks exploded and flames licked the plane, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to build, to a blackened skeleton.
The last house into which the plane crashed was owned by Lt. Col. Charles Myers, chief interpreter at the Nuernberg war trials in Germany. It was destroyed.
One of the witnesses to the crash was actor Dennis O’Keefe, who said the plane was flying very low, making a terrific noise, just before it plummeted onto a house.
In addition to Mr. O’Keefe, the crash was witnessed by J. A. Harrison, a telephone company employee, who said he was in the telephone building at Beverly Hills, when he heard the plane go by.
Noise was weird
“It sounded very close and the noise was weird,” he said. “So I rushed to the window and saw what appeared to be a mammoth P-38 moving very slowly in a northwest direction. Then it crashed.”
The weird sound probably came from the new-type propellers, but Mr. O’Keefe said the sound indicated to him that Mr. Hughes had “wound up” his engines to the maximum in an effort to climb.
Property damage in the crash was estimated by firemen at $100,000. No one except Mr. Hughes was injured, however.
Mr. Hughes made a series of short taxi-runs on the airport, runway in Culver City before taking off. A mechanic was at the controls with him until shortly before he streaked away, alone, at the controls of the plane he designed and built in conjunction with Air Materiel Command engineers for the Army Air Forces.
Eight-bladed propellers
The XF-11 was 65 feet 5 inches long, powered by two 3,000-horsepower radial engines with eight bladed contra-rotating propellers. The plane’s speed was rated better than 400 m.p.h. and its ceiling more than 40,000 feet.
It was the second plane to be rolled out of the hangars at the Hughes plant in the last month. Two weeks ago, Mr. Hughes’ $20,000,000 flying boat, largest aircraft in the world, was moved from Culver City to the harbor for final assembly. It is scheduled for a test flight late this summer.
The Evening Star (July 9, 1946)
Hughes holding own; business talks halted
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Howard Hughes’ fabulous luck held good today.
Fighting the effects of critical injuries suffered in the crash and explosion of his experimental Army plane Sunday night, the millionaire aircraft and moviemaker was reported by physicians at Good Samaritan Hospital today to be “holding his own.”
The degree of shock and the extent of injury to Mr. Hughes’ left lung, severely battered when his chest was crushed in the crash, were the physicians’ main concern.
Close watch was kept during the night by attendants, and a guard, posted after Mr. Hughes held a business conference in his hospital room yesterday against doctor’s orders, remained on duty. The guard’s instructions, issued by physicians, were to let no one into the room but doctors and nurses.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 9, 1946)
Regaining consciousness, Hughs piles into business
But doctor shoos plane designer’s aides away; flier’s condition still critical
BEVERLY HILLS, California (UP) – Sportsman Howard Hughes fought stubbornly for his life today. Meanwhile, a special corps of hospital officials struggled almost as stubbornly to keep dozens of business associates away from his room.
They didn’t get much cooperation from the 40-year-old multimillionaire airplane designer and moviemaker who crashed Sunday night on a test flight of his new XF-11, Army photographic plane. He wanted to turn his oxygen tent into a business office.
A Hughes spokesman said there was little change in his condition, “either up or down” – and that his condition still was critical.
Asks if others hurt
“The next 24 hours probably will tell the story,” he said.
Mr. Hughes’ first concern on regaining consciousness was for anyone who might have been injured when his plane struck two houses and plowed into a $100.000 mansion in the exclusive Bel Air residential district.
He dispatched Walter Reynolds of Hughes Productions, Inc., to the scene of the wreck but was assured that no one was hurt.
Mr. Hughes said he knew he was in trouble an hour before he crashed. He was wearing a parachute, he added, but decided to stay with his ship.
“I did my level best to get her up,” he explained. “I knew there was a big investment in time and research tied up in the ship, and I wanted to get her back. The power just gave way.”
Shooed by doctor
Cluttering up the hospital corridors were countless members of Mr. Hughes’ spider-like web of businesses.
Despite a crushed chest, collapsed left lung, possible skull fractures, eight broken ribs, a broken left shoulder, a smashed nose, and numerous bruises and burns, Mr. Hughes called for his secretary the minute he regained consciousness.
He dictated a sheaf of orders from his oxygen tent, called in an assistant to discuss several pending business deals, and cancelled an appointment in Los Angeles – all before his horrified physician burst in to break up the session.
The Evening Star (July 10, 1946)
Lana Turner and Jane Russell barred from Hughes’ bedside
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Two film stars, Lana Turner and Jane Russell, have tried without avail to reach the bedside of the stricken Howard Hughes, whose newest plane cracked up with him at the controls Sunday.
Miss Turner, who has been seen frequently with the handsome film producer and airplane builder, was weeping as she left Good Samaritan Hospital. She arrived unannounced at the hospital, asked permission to see Mr. Hughes and was told that his condition was so critical no visitors were permitted.
Miss Turner stayed on at the hospital for several hours. Some Hollywood reports have it that she has told friends she and Mr. Hughes might marry and that she had gone so far as to plan her trousseau.
Jane Russell, star of Mr. Hughes’ latest movie production, “The Outlaw,” arrived at the hospital yesterday afternoon, and she, too, was refused permission to see Mr. Hughes.
“I’m so glad he’s somewhat improved,” Miss Russell said. “I really didn’t expect that I’d be allowed to visit him because I knew how serious his condition was. But I’ll keep posted on his condition by telephone.”
Dr. Verne Mason, who said he had been Mr. Hughes’ physician since the flier was a youngster, said his patient did not have a skull fracture, as was feared. He said the left lung, crushed and punctured as the plane crashed, now was functioning but that Mr. Hughes’ condition was still critical.
No surgery will be attempted until Mr. Hughes recovers from the severe shock he experienced when the plane crashed into three houses in Beverly Hills, setting them afire before it exploded.
Editorial: The amazing Mr. Hughes
If there was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind that Howard Hughes is a remarkable person, the latest episode in his extraordinary career should remove it. This forty-year-old aviation adventurer decided to be his own test pilot on the initial flight of a fast, radically designed experimental fighter plane he was developing for the Army Air Forces. The plane failed to clear some houses, caromed crazily for a few brief moments and then crashed in flames.
Mr. Hughes, rescued from the wreckage by a Marine, was found to have a skull fracture, eight broken ribs, a collapsed lung and other grave injuries. Yet, on recovering consciousness at a hospital, he insisted on summoning members of his staff and gave them a rapid series of orders about carrying on his business pending his return. Only the arrival of an outraged physician broke up the conference. What the doctor did not know is that Mr. Hughes is not one to be easily discouraged by adversity, once he makes up his mind to do a thing. He set his mind on establishing transcontinental and round-the-world speed records – and did so. He has collected numerous awards, including the Harmon Trophy twice and the Collier Trophy once.
During the war he devoted his energies to war planes. Only a week ago he began assembling a new plane, designed to be the largest bomber in the world. On the side he has found time to be a successful movie producer. With a career like that, Mr. Hughes is not likely to be too dismayed by a few broken bones and bruises. He has unfinished work to do and knowing what that means to a person of Mr. Hughes’ determination, his friends cannot but hold high hopes for his recovery.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 10, 1946)
Howard Hughes given penicillin
Plane crash victim’s condition ‘dangerous’
BEVERLY HILLS, California (UP) – Penicillin treatments toward off pneumonia were continued today as sportsman Howard Hughes kept up his stubborn fight to survive the crash of his experimental Army photo reconnaissance plane.
Dr. Verne Mason, Mr. Hughes’ physician, said his patient’s condition remained dangerous but that he had no skull fracture. He said Mr. Hughes’ left lung was injured, but not punctured.
Among thousands of messages received from well-wishers was one from Gen. Carl Spaatz, commanding general of the Army Air Forces, for which Mr. Hughes built the XF-11, he was test flying when it crashed.
“I was deeply concerned to learn of your accident,” Gen. Spaatz’s message said. “Am happy you are improving. As a pioneer in modern aviation developments, your contributions to the Army Air Forces have been invaluable. Sincere hopes for a rapid recovery.”
In a bulletin issued late yesterday, Dr. Mason said Mr. Hughes was “sleeping like a baby.”
The Evening Star (July 11, 1946)
Howard Hughes’ condition reported as still critical
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The condition of Howard Hughes, wealthy sportsman, flier and film producer, was pronounced as still critical today, the fifth day since the spectacular crash of an Army experimental plane he was flying.
“Hughes has a terrific determination to live,” said his physician, Dr. Verne Mason.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 11, 1946)
Hughes’ condition reported better
BEVERLY HILLS, California (UP) – Howard Hughes, sportsman flier, who was given only a 50-50 chance to live after he crashed in his experimental Army photo reconnaissance plane, continued to improve today. But his condition still was classed as critical.
At Good Samaritan Hospital, where Hughes has lain since the crash of his new XF-11 plane on its maiden flight Sunday night, his condition was reported unchanged.
The last bulletin issued by Dr. Verne Mason, his physician, reported that “Mr. Hughes’ condition remains critical,” but cited improvements in the condition of his left lung, now functioning, and his blood pressure, which has returned to normal.
The Evening Star (July 12, 1946)
Howard Hughes sinks; sends Army story of cause of crash
LOS ANGELES (AP) – His battle for life suddenly weakening, Howard Hughes, 41, beckoned his doctor to his bedside last night and whispered a halting story of the cause of his fiery crash Sunday in an experimental plane.
“I want you to give this message to the Army. The accident was caused by the rear half of the right propeller,” the millionaire maker of planes and movies told Dr. Verne R. Mason.
“I don’t want this to happen to anybody else.”
Explaining carefully that the rear set of propeller blades on the right engine of his twin-engine plane had suddenly reversed pitch during the first test hop, Mr. Hughes said: “It felt as if some giant had the right wing of the airplane in his hand and was pushing it back and down.
“Tell the Army to look in the wreckage, find the rear half of the right propeller, and find out what! went wrong.”
Survival is in doubt
Mr. Hughes gave his message to Dr. Mason after asking, “Am I going to live?” and hearing the physician solemnly reply: “I don’t know.”
In a bulletin on Mr. Hughes’ condition, issued when he disclosed the airman’s first words on the cause of the crash, the doctor said:
“Howard Hughes has suffered a turn for the worse in his fight for life. His left lung has failed to respond and is still functionless. He is surviving through the restricted use of his right lung, to the extent permitted by his crushed chest, which includes nine broken ribs.
“He is breathing pure oxygen 24 hours a day.”
Mr. Hughes’ XF-11 photo-reconnaissance craft, reportedly the world’s fastest long-range plane, struck and set afire three houses and a garage in Beverly Hills before crashing and exploding in a vacant lot.
Gives story of crash
Giving his own story of the crash, Mr. Hughes said: “The front four blades of the propeller were trying to pull the airplane ahead while the rear four blades were trying equally hard to push it backward. To make matters worse, these eight large propeller blades, whirling around fighting one another, created a dead drag on the right-hand side of the airplane equal to that of a steel disk, 17 feet in diameter, turned broadside to the wind at several hundred miles per hour.”
Mr. Hughes said he then unfastened his seat belt and looked out the cabin to see if any part of the plane might have torn loose, creating the drag. He saw nothing out of order.
“I have thought about it carefully,” he said. “I am absolutely certain it was the propeller.”
The Pittsburgh Press (July 12, 1946)
Hopes others avoid his fate –
Hughes, told death is near, dictates story of air crash
Speaking through oxygen mask, noted flier reports to Army that propeller failed
BEVERLY HILLS, California (UP) – Howard Hughes, multi-millionaire plane designer near death after a four-day battle for his life, listened calmly today while his physician told him he may not live.
Then he asked permission to dictate a message to the Army, explaining the crash of his latest experimental plane last Sunday night, “so this won’t happen to somebody else.”
His voice coming slowly and painfully from his oxygen mask, the handsome, 40-year-old sportsman blamed the accident on a faulty propeller.
“I am absolutely certain that’s what caused the crash,” he said. “It felt as if some giant had suddenly grasped the right wing of the plane and was pushing it back and down.”
Last night his stubborn resistance faltered. Calling his physician, Dr. Verne Mason, he asked point-blank: “Am I going to live?”
“I don’t know,” Dr. Mason replied.
In a bedside bulletin, the physician explained that Mr. Hughes’ left lung had failed to respond.
The famous flier’s turn for the worse followed his request for his good luck charm – the battered old felt hat he was wearing when his ship crashed.
Patrolman E. R. Davis crawled over the blackened wreckage until he found the hat jammed in the bottom of the wrecked cockpit – dirty and water-soaked.
In outlining the cause of the crash, Mr. Hughes said: “The four blades of the right propeller (each of the two engines drives eight-bladed propellers – the rear set going in the opposite direction from the front) suddenly changed into reverse pitch position.”
The Evening Star (July 13, 1946)
Howard Hughes receives message from president
LOS ANGELES (UP) – Howard Hughes continued his stubborn and dramatic battle for life today while pulling for him on the sidelines were countless friends and well-wishers, including President Truman who telegraphed: “I feel sure you will win this fight.”
Hopes that the 40-year-old aircraft designer and movie producer might rally suffered a setback late last night when it was announced no bulletin would be issued then on his condition. This was taken to indicate the round-the-world flier, injured in an air crash Sunday, had made little progress from a previously announced precarious condition.
President Truman’s message read: “I am watching eagerly all the reports concerning you. I feel sure you will win this fight. With every good wish – Harry S. Truman.”
The Pittsburgh Press (July 13, 1946)
Hughes’ physician plans operation
Condition of flier remains critical
BEVERLY HILLS, California (UP) – Doctors considered the possibility of an emergency operation today to aid the recovery of Howard Hughes. His condition remained critical despite a stubborn battle against death.
“There is no operation in the immediate offing,” Dr. Verne Mason, Mr. Hughes’ chief physician, said. However, he admitted that he and other doctors with whom he is consulting had discussed the advisability of surgery to relieve pressure on Mr. Hughes’ lung.
Dr. Mason visited his famous patient at the hospital. He said there had been no change for better or worse since Mr. Hughes suffered a relapse Thursday night.
Mr. Hughes, 40, wealthy airplane designer, crashed in his experimental Army plane on a test flight Sunday night.
Mr. Hughes was bolstered in his fight for life by the good wishes of President Truman who, with scores of other well-wishers, sent the pioneer aviator a telegram of encouragement.
The Evening Star (July 14, 1946)
Condition of Hughes shows improvement; physicians amazed
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Howard Hughes rallied today in his fight to survive shattering crash injuries, and his physicians commented: “We are amazed at his recuperative powers.”
His condition has been critical since he was Injured in the pileup of a fast new photo-reconnaissance plane last Sunday, and Thursday night took a turn for the worse.
But a bulletin this afternoon, signed by his three doctors, declared: “Mr. Hughes’ condition has improved slightly during the last 12 hours. In spite of great pain on movement of the patient, he slept at short intervals during the night and he has taken some nourishment. His temperature remains elevated, but has been constant for the last 24 hours.
Right lung functioning
“There is a large collection of fluid in the left chest. The right lung is functioning in spite of fractures of the first and second ribs. There are extensive second and third degree burns on the lower part of the left chest. This precludes removal of fluid in the left chest unless evidence of infection is certain.
“There are fractures of nine ribs on the posterior wall of the left chest, and in addition of the left clavicle.”
Earlier in the day – eighth anniversary of completion of his 91-hour, record-breaking, round-the-world flight – the doctors announced:
“We found Mr. Hughes asleep this morning and did not awaken him, but from the charts and the way he looks, it appears that his condition is unchanged.
“There is no operation necessary at the present time.”
Army probes crash
The Army, meanwhile, announced it was pressing an inquiry into cause of the crash. Mr. Hughes’ own opinion, whispered to Dr. Mason in a dramatic bedside consultation after he was told he might not live, was that the rearmost of two sets of blades on the plane’s right engine had reversed pitch in mid-air, giving him a feeling “as if some giant had the right wing of the airplane in his hand and was pushing it back and down.”
It was the first test flight of the XF-11, destined for the Army, and followed the Hughes’ tradition of always taking his firm’s new planes aloft on the initial trials.
“Tell the Army to find the rear half of the right propeller and find out what went wrong with it,” Mr. Hughes told his doctor. And Col. Emile T. Kennedy, chief of the Los Angeles AAF Procurement Field office, said an investigating board of three officers was studying the wreckage and taking photographs from every angle.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 14, 1946)
Howard Hughes improves slightly
Doctors amazed by fight to live
BEVERLY HILLS, California, July 13 (UP) – The condition of Howard Hughes, millionaire aircraft builder and motion picture producer, has shown a slight improvement in the last 12 hours in his fight to survive severe injuries suffered in a plane crash a week ago.
In a bulletin issued shortly after noon today, his attending physicians announced the slight improvement and said they were amazed at his recuperative powers.
“He has slept at short intervals and taken some nourishment in spite of great pain,” the doctors said.
New plane crashed
Mr. Hughes was critically injured last Sunday night when his new photographic plane, which he designed for the Air Forces, went out of control on a test hop and crashed into a $100,000 house here.
The famous flier is suffering from a pressure on his left chest which has prevented the removal of fluid from the left lung.
Earlier, doctors had discussed the advisability of an operation to relieve the pressure of the lung. However, Dr. Verne Mason, Hughes’ chief physician, said there would be no surgery “in the immediate offing.”
The lung injury proved most serious of the multiple hurts suffered by the famous flier.
Hospital corridors crowded
Corridors of Good Samaritan Hospital were crowded in the vicinity of Hughes’ room with press agents, friends and newspapermen. Among those who called to wish him well were actresses Linda Darnell, writer-director Preston Sturges and actor Richard Barthelmess. The patient was permitted no visitors, however.
The Army, meanwhile, began an investigation of the crash.
Mr. Hughes attributed the accident to a faulty propeller which made “it feel like a giant hand was pushing the plane back and down.”
The Evening Star (July 15, 1946)
Hughes continues in critical condition
LOS ANGELES (AP) – His temperature and pulse still above normal, Howard Hughes remained in critical condition today in Good Samaritan Hospital, where the famous plane builder was taken a week ago yesterday after crashing his experimental photographic plane.
A bulletin issued by Mr. Hughes’ physicians gave his temperature as 101½ and said his pulse was running between 120 and 140. Breathing continued painful and laborious, but Mr. Hughes had just ended three hours of restful sleep, the bulletin said.
Last night, Dr. Verne Mason said he was optimistic over Mr. Hughes’ chances for complete recovery.
The Evening Star (July 16, 1946)
Hughes off critical list; gets blood transfusion
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Howard Hughes was somewhat improved today, nine days after his experimental photo reconnaissance plane crashed and burned in Beverly Hills on its maiden flight.
Doctors administered a blood transfusion late last night to offset moderate anemia.
The airplane builder-pilot has nine rib fractures, a collapsed left lung and severe burns.
But for the first time, the physicians’ bulletin last night omitted reference to his condition as “still critical.”
The Waterbury Democrat (July 17, 1946)
Hughes has been experimenting all his life with new things
LOS ANGELES (NEA) – Howard Hughes, the millionaire playboy who plays for profit on the land, in the air, and in the movies, is a smooth young man who has been experimenting with new things all his life and up to now has met with nothing but success.
Even his crash while testing the fast new plane he built for the Army was nothing new under the bright and nearly always shining Hughes sun. Hughes, now 41, crashed before in one of his own planes, too. But that time he got up and walked away.
He started with a 650,000 oil-drilling tool business, inherited from his family, and ran it into a jackpot worth between 150 and 200 million dollars. At various times during this build-up, his personal, non-losing slot machine has paused to pay off in world’s records in everything from airplanes to movies.
Hughes was only 18 when his father died in 1923, leaving him the small, conservative Hughes Tool Company in Texas. The company built rock bits for deep well drilling. Hughes had to get court permission to run the company because he was underage, but once he got his hands on it, he lifted it into the biggest of its kind in the country. Last year, it did a $30,000,000 business – not counting war contracts.
Laughter hollow
Once he had imbued the tool company with the Hughes spirit, he looked around for something else to play with. He tried movies as an independent, and the industry laughed. It’s still laughing, but the laughter is hollow. Before he was 21, he backed his first film venture into a $100,000 profit. His first full-fledged venture, a comedy called “Two Arabian Nights,” was worth $300,000 to him.
Next he starred Thomas Meighan in a brutal portrayal of big-city political racketeering called “The Racket.” Big city censors didn’t like it, but Hughes fought them in court, finally got the show into theaters and cleaned up again.
More than two decades later, he was still having the same trouble with censors – and reaping profits out of it. He made “The Outlaw,” and in the ensuing publicity, made a top personality out of its star, Jane Russell, even though few people have seen her yet except in publicity shots. Where “The Outlaw” has played, it has set new box-office records.
Drew second highest
In between, he sank $1,500,000 in to “Hell’s Angels” as a silent movie. Before he released it, along came sound. He threw the silent version away, got a new star who could talk (a gal named Jean Harlow, who up to then had been a custard-pie target), and wound up with a talkie that cost $3,000,000. It drew more customers than any other film except “Birth of a Nation.”
But carving a movie career was just another sideline to Hughes, although he flourished in the brightness of Hollywood’s glitter and once got together with William Randolph Hearst and several others in an attempt to buy MGM. The deal fell through.
He has been just as eager and successful in aviation – not alone as a magnate but as a man right up in the front seat. Hughes started flying when he was 14, once went to work for American Airways at $250 a month to learn about the business. He learned. He owns several airplane and parts plants and is controlling stockholder in Trans World Airlines, which he moved into in 1939.
He built, designed and flew a plane in 1935 to set a world’s land speed record of 352 miles per hour, then set a transcontinental record from Los Angeles to New York in seven hours and 28 minutes. When Russia tried to buy that plane two years later, he said no sale.
Got many ideas
In 1938, he took off from New York, flew around the world in three days and 19 hours, cutting the previous record in half. His plane was fixed up as a flying laboratory, and out of his flight came many of the ideas he translated into war production in the years that followed.
His almost-magic touch is mixed up in the Constellation, super-airliner which his TWA got the first chance at, and which its manufacturer ballyhooed in a style somewhat akin to the three-sheets announcing “The Outlaw.”
But crashes are haunting the Constellation just as they are haunting the man who conceived the plane and backed it with a $20,000,000 note.
During the war his companies did a total of $200,000,000 worth of work for the government, made no excess profits, and when the contracts were negotiated, the government found no refunds were required.
No shrinking violet
With this whirlwind life of films and flying, it is not surprising that Hughes has been a bachelor, except for one, three-year marriage venture with Ella Rice, daughter of the founder of Rice Institute in Houston, Texas, which ended in divorce in 1928.
Hughes is no shrinking violet. He’s been seen among the glamourous. Faith Dorn, a movie actress, announced in 1941 she and Hughes were engaged. Others have hopefully hinted the same thing. Nothing ever came of it.
Once he decided to try yachting. He bought the “Southern Cross” in 1935 for a paltry three million dollars.
And he owns the biggest brewery in Texas. It helps pay for his champagne, when he drinks it.
The Evening Star (July 18, 1946)
Hughes ‘feels better,’ he tells physicians
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A medical bulletin on the condition of Howard Hughes, issued early today, said that it was found necessary last night to tap Mr. Hughes’ chest and remove more than a quart of fluid.
Drs. Verne Mason and Lawrence Chaffin reported that otherwise the condition of the millionaire aircraft maker and film producer was unchanged since he was reported improved yesterday and told Dr. Mason: “I feel better than I have since I was injured.”
Mr. Hughes suffered a crushed lung and other injuries when an Army photo reconnaissance plane he was testing crashed July 7.