“Play off everyone against each other so that you have more avenues of action open to you,” said a young and ambitious Hughes.
Hughes’ fierce determination had been evident from a young age. At 21, he embarked on a series of film projects, which ranged in success. His first film Swell Hogan was never released, while his Two Arabian Knights went on to win an Academy Award in 1927. A few years later, Hughes spent a whopping $3.8 million of his own money to create the successful film Hell’s Angels. His desire to create the perfect film was so great that while filming The Outlaw, Hughes used his engineering background to design a unique brassiere for the lead actress because he was unhappy with the effect of her original one.
While on his deathbed, Hughes commented, “I want to be remembered for only one thing – my contribution to aviation.” In 1932, Hughes founded the Hughes Aircraft Co. to pursue his dream of breaking the world airspeed record. In just three years, Hughes had set two new records after having designed the groundbreaking H-1 Racer. After achieving his goal in the US, Hughes decided to try and set a new around-the-world record and indeed, in 1938, he accomplished his mission in just 91 hours, beating the previous record by more than four days. Awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his achievements, Hughes never went to Washington to pick up his award.
To maintain his leading edge over his competitors, Hughes also purchased a controlling interest of TWA and designed for them the first commercial plane with a pressurized passenger cabin. He also helped design the revolutionary Lockheed Constellation. The airline grew significantly under his leadership. The US government recognized Hughes’ talent and commissioned him to build what would later be known as the ‘Spruce Goose’ for use in WWII. A huge flying boat, the plane was not finished in time to be used during the war, but would become one of Hughes’ most famous inventions.
In 1946, Hughes’ life took a dramatic turn for the worse when an experimental US Army spy plane he was piloting crashed over Los Angeles. Badly burned and with countless burns, Hughes’ behaviour became erratic and he developed a life-long addiction to painkillers. This event would serve as a major turning point in Hughes’ life. Shortly after he purchased RKO, a major Hollywood studio, in 1948, the struggling company was sold to Desilu Productions. An antitrust suit also forced Hughes to sell his TWA stock for $546 million.
Hughes also put all the stock of the Hughes Aircraft Co., which had become one of the largest defense contractors by that time, towards the creation of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Seen by many as a personal tax haven for Hughes, the IRS became engaged in a legal battle with Hughes over its charitable status that would last well past Hughes’ death. Today, the Institute remains America’s second largest private foundation and the largest devoted to biological and medical research.
Although he was becoming increasingly reclusive, further troubled by drug addiction and was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Hughes continued to pursue numerous business opportunities. Approached by the CIA, Hughes took part in a secret mission, building the Glomar Explorer to help recover a sunken Soviet submarine near Hawaii. He also used the money from the sale of his TWA stock to buy the Desert Inn and Casino in Las Vegas. Over the next four years, Hughes purchased several other hotels and casinos, a television station, Alamo Airlines and 25,000 acres of property around Las Vegas in an attempt to change the city’s dirty image. By the time Hughes died in 1975 at the age of 70, his estimated net worth was $2 billion.
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