For this session in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, I’ll be flying the Hughes H-1 Racer, the superbly streamlined airplane that eccentric tycoon Howard Hughes built and flew to set several world speed records.
The story of this plane really begins in 1908, when Howard’s father, Howard Hughes Sr., patented a new drill bit that proved essential to the oil boom then sweeping Texas. The drill bit business generated money like a gushing oil derrick. Hughes Sr. moved his family to Los Angeles, where his brother (junior’s uncle) was a successful screenwriter for the fledgling movie industry, interested to get in on the action.
