Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes was born into wealth as the son of Howard Hughes Sr., inventor of the rotary drill bit that revolutionized oil drilling, founding the Hughes Tool Company. After his parents' early deaths, young Hughes inherited the company at age 18 in 1924, using its profits to pursue ambitious ventures in aviation, film, and beyond. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s, producing films like Hell's Angels (1930), which showcased his engineering prowess in aviation sequences. In aviation, Hughes achieved groundbreaking feats, designing and piloting aircraft to set world speed records, including a 1935 mark of 352 mph and a 1938 around-the-world flight in 91 hours. He founded Hughes Aircraft Company, acquired Trans World Airlines (TWA), and developed radar and military technologies during World War II. His business empire expanded into Las Vegas casinos like the Desert Inn and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for biomedical research. Hughes's later Hollywood foray included buying RKO Pictures in 1948, but his growing reclusiveness led to mismanagement, halting production by 1953. Increasingly private, he moved frequently—Bahamas, Nicaragua, Canada, England, Las Vegas, Mexico—living in darkened hotel rooms with aides, subsisting on minimal food and drugs, becoming emaciated and paranoid. A 1971 scandal involved forged memoirs falsely attributed to him. Hughes died en route from Acapulco to Houston for treatment in 1976, sparking disputes over his $2.5 billion estate, with multiple 'wills' (including one in a Mormon church) ruled forgeries. His legacy endures as a visionary innovator whose obsessions with control and privacy defined his final decades.