On 13 September 1935, Howard Hughes climbed into the cockpit of a sleek silver racer of his own design and flew it at 352.46 mph across a measured course in Santa Ana, California \u2014 faster than any aeroplane in history had ever flown. He was 29 years old, had already inherited a fortune from a drill-bit company, and was spending it on the most obsessive aviation programme since the Wright Brothers. What drove Hughes into the sky was not money or fame. It was speed. Pure, uncomplicated, machine-mediated speed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 13 September 1935, Howard Hughes climbed into the cockpit of a sleek silver racer of his own design and flew it at 352.46 mph across a measured course in Santa Ana, California \u2014 faster than any aeroplane in history had ever flown. He was 29 years old, had already inherited a fortune from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":668837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"Howard Hughes aviation records Spruce Goose","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Howard Hughes: Billionaire, Record-Breaker & Aviation Legend | MiGFlug","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Howard Hughes set airspeed records, built the Spruce Goose, and was aviation's most glamorous figure. The extraordinary rise and tragic fall of a uniquely American hero.","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"\n