Howard Hughes (born December 24, 1905, Houston, Texas, U.S.—died April 5, 1976, in an airplane over southern Texas) American manufacturer, aviator, and motion-picture producer and director who acquired enormous wealth and celebrity from his various ventures but was perhaps better known for his eccentricities, especially his reclusiveness.
In 1932 he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in Culver City, California. On September 12, 1935, in an airplane of his own design, he established the world’s landplane speed record of 352.46 miles (567.23 km) per hour. On January 19, 1937, in the same craft, he averaged 332 miles per hour in lowering the transcontinental flight-time record to 7 hours 28 minutes. Flying a Lockheed 14, he circled Earth in a record 91 hours 14 minutes in July 1938. The following year Hughes bought a share of Trans World Airlines (TWA), and he eventually acquired 78 percent of its stock.
During World War II, Hughes’s focus turned to military aircraft, and his company had several government contracts, notably for the Hughes XF-11 and the H-4 Hercules.