| (1905
- 1976) |
| Inducted: |
1996 |
| Region: |
MidAtlantic |
| Industry: |
Transportation
Entertainment |
|
Howard Hughes inherited the fortune his father made from inventing a cone-shaped oil-drilling bit. Hughes had little appetite for the oil drilling business but wanted to produce motion pictures. In 1928 he won an Academy Award for Two Arabian Knights. He founded Hughes Aircraft Company in 1933 and broke the world speed record in 1935 in a plane that he designed. In 1938, he flew around the world in record time. Hughes bought Trans World Airlines in 1959 and enormous tracts of land in and around Las Vegas in the late 1960s. |
