Miloch <Miloch_member@newsguy.com> wrote in
news:qgclbd01l0v@drn.newsguy.com:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-1_Racer
>
> The Hughes H-1 is a racing aircraft built by Hughes Aircraft in 1935.
> It set a world airspeed record and a transcontinental speed record
> across the United States. The H-1 Racer was the last aircraft built by
> a private individual to set the world speed record; most aircraft to
> hold the honor since have been military designs.
>
> During his work on his movie Hell's Angels, Howard Hughes employed
> Glenn Odekirk to maintain the fleet of over 100 aircraft used in the
> production. The two men shared a common interest in aviation and
> hatched a plan to build a record-beating aircraft. The aircraft was
> given many names, but is commonly known as the H-1. It was the first
> aircraft model produced by the Hughes Aircraft company.
>
> Design studies began in 1934 with an exacting, large scale model (over
> two feet in length) that was tested in the California Institute of
> Technology wind tunnel, revealing a speed potential of 365 miles per
> hour (587 km/h).
>
> Streamlining was a paramount design criterion resulting in "one of the
> cleanest and most elegant aircraft designs ever built." Many
> groundbreaking technologies were developed during the construction
> process, including individually machined flush rivets that left the
> aluminium skin of the aircraft completely smooth. The H-1 also had
> retractable landing gear to further increase the speed of the
> aircraft, including a fully retractable hydraulically actuated tail
> skid. It was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1535 twin-row 14-cylinder
> radial engine of 1,535 cubic inches (25.15 l), which although
> originally rated at 700 horsepower (522 kW), was tuned to put out over
> 1,000 horsepower (750 kW).
>
> Due to two different roles being envisioned for the racing aircraft, a
> set of short-span wings for air racing and speed records and a set of
> "long" wings for cross-country racing were prepared.
>
>
> Role
> Racing aircraft
> Long-range aircraft [for record attempt]
>
> Manufacturer
> Hughes Aircraft
>
> Designer
> Richard Palmer
>
> First flight
> September 13, 1935
>
> Primary user
> Howard Hughes
>
> Produced
> 1935
>
> Number built
> 1
>
> Career
>
>
> Registration
> NR258Y
>
> Preserved at
> National Air and Space Museum
>
> The H-1 first flew in 1935 and promptly broke the world landplane
> speed record with Hughes at the controls, clocking 352.39 mph (567.12
> km/h) averaged over four timed passes. Hughes apparently ran the
> aircraft out of fuel and managed to crash-land without serious damage
> to either himself or the H-1.:133-134 As soon as Hughes exited the H-1
> when he crashed it in a beet field south of Santa Ana, California, his
> only comment was: "We can fix her; she'll go faster." At the time, the
> world seaplane speed record was 440.7 mph (709.2 km/h), set by a
> Macchi M.C.72 in October 1934.
>
> Hughes later implemented minor changes to the H-1 Racer to make it
> more suitable for a transcontinental speed record attempt. The most
> significant change was the fitting of a new, longer set of wings that
> gave the aircraft a lower wing loading. On January 19, 1937, a year
> and a half after his previous landplane speed record in the H-1,
> Hughes set a new transcontinental speed record by flying non-stop from
> Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. He
> smashed his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 minutes by two hours.
> His average speed over the flight was 322 miles per hour (518 km/h).
>
> Considering the contemporary service aircraft were biplanes, Hughes
> fully expected the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) to embrace his
> aircraft's new design and make the H-1 the basis for a new generation
> of U.S. fighter aircraft. His efforts to "sell" the design were
> unsuccessful. In postwar testimony before the Senate, Hughes indicated
> that resistance to the innovative design was the basis for the USAAC
> rejection of the H-1: "I tried to sell that airplane to the Army but
> they turned it down because at that time the Army did not think a
> cantilever monoplane was proper for a pursuit ship..."
>
> Aviation historians have posited that the H-1 Racer may have inspired
> later radial engine fighters such as the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and
> the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. After the war, Hughes further claimed that "it
> was quite apparent to everyone that the Japanese Zero fighter had been
> copied from the Hughes H-1 Racer." He noted both the wing shape, the
> tail design and the general similarity of the Zero and his racer. Jiro
> Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi Zero strongly denied the
> allegation of the Hughes H-1 influencing the design of the Japanese
> fighter aircraft.
>
> The Hughes H-1 Racer is featured in the 1940 RKO Radio Pictures movie
> Men Against the Sky.
Millionaire Jim Wright built and flew a full
scale replica until his fatal crash in it in 2009.
https://tinyurl.com/y6ax3abh
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