Howard Hughes' Little Airplane Accident in Hollywood

In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over Beverly
Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a few
houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com

javawizard wrote:
In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over Beverly
Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a few
houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com

That scene was in the movie The Aviator.

javawizard wrote in news:1190305174.005153.236440
@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over Beverly
Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a few
houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com


That airplane was not plywood.


Bertie

Recently, BillJ posted:

javawizard wrote:
In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over
Beverly Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a
few houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com

That scene was in the movie The Aviator.

I especially liked the way the aluminum wing cut through several units of
a brick apartment building. He must have been going close to the speed of
light! ;-)

Neil

javawizard wrote:
In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over Beverly
Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a few
houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com

here's more.
Indeed not plywood.
http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites...crash_site.htm
Dang, He almost made the golf course.

--
Message posted via AviationKB.com
http://www.aviationkb.com/Uwe/Forums...ation/200709/1

"javawizard" wrote in message
ups.com...

In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over Beverly
Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a few
houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com


Really? What was the aircraft?

On 2007-09-20 09:19:34 -0700, javawizard said:

In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over Beverly
Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a few
houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com

It severely damaged Howard Hughes. He nearly died from burns on his lungs.

As others have noted, it was not plywood. It was made of aluminum. The
XF-11 was patterned after an earlier plywood plane, the D-2, that
Howard Hughes had built, which may be the source of confusion. However,
the D-2 was destroyed by fire before the XF-11 was even built.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

That scene was in the movie The Aviator.

I especially liked the way the aluminum wing cut through several units of
a brick apartment building. He must have been going close to the speed of
light! ;-)

Yep, that scene nearly ruined an otherwise great movie. Whoever
their aviation adviser was on that flick was either over-ruled by the
director, or a complete maroon.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 2007-09-20 11:25:45 -0700, "Neil Gould" said:

Recently, BillJ posted:

javawizard wrote:
In 1946 a test pilot lost control of his plywood airplane over
Beverly Hills, California and plowed into a neighborhood, damaging a
few houses. The test pilot was Howard Hughes. - from www.odd-info.com

That scene was in the movie The Aviator.

I especially liked the way the aluminum wing cut through several units of
a brick apartment building. He must have been going close to the speed of
light! ;-)

Neil

Hmm. I thought it was just scraping tiles off a roof. I'll have to look
at it again.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

"C J Campbell" wrote

Hmm. I thought it was just scraping tiles off a roof. I'll have to look at
it again.

It was. They were terra-cotta roof tiles, which have the color and somewhat
the consistency of bricks, so it would be easy to confuse the two.
--
Jim in NC