Howard Hughes, industrialist, aviator and movie producer, looks down the fairway while playing a round of golf in southern California during the 1930s.
Howard Hughes, industrialist, film producer and pilot, poses in the cockpit of his new racing plane after a test flight in Los Angeles Aug. 17, 1935. The plane, nearly two years in construction at a cost believed to be more than $100,000, was to be piloted by Hughes in the Bendix race from Los Angeles to Cleveland.
Howard Hughes sits on his H-1 speed plane after he made a forced landing in a beet field near Santa Ana, Calif., Sept. 13, 1935. The propeller, fuselage and landing gear were damaged. Before the landing, Hughes flew the H-1 to a new world speed record of 352 miles per hour, 567 kilometers, at Santa Ana.
Howard Hughes, right, movie producer and pilot, is greeted by Albert Lodwick, aviation executive, at Floyd Bennett Airport in New York City, April 21, 1936, after completing his flight from Miami, Fla., in four hours, 21 minutes, 32 seconds.
Howard Hughes, wearing hat and facing camera, center, is welcomed at Le Bourget Airdrome, France, on July 1, 1938, after landing his twin-motored Lockheed Monoplane. Hughes spent 16 1/2 hours on the New York-to-Paris flight.
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. poses in July 1938. Hughes, an aviator, businessman, billionaire, movie director and producer, was born in 1905 in Houston, Texas.
American aviator Howard Hughes, center, is escorted by Grover Whalen, left, president of the New York World's Fair, following his arrival at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, July 14, 1938. Hughes set a new record on his around-the-world flight, 3 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes.
Howard Hughes and his crew of four men are greeted by a crowd as they make a pit stop at an airport in Minneapolis, Minn., early July 14, 1938, marking the flyer's return to the United States on his round-the-world flight. The special Lockheed 14 took 600 gallons of gasoline for the final leg of the flight to New York City.
Howard Hughes walks across the lobby of a hotel in New York City, July 15, 1938. Hughes and his crew arrived the day before after completing a flight around the world in less than four days.
Actress Jane Russell's notorious screen debut in Howard Hughes's "The Outlaw" in 1943. Russell stars opposite Jack Beutel as Billy the Kid.
Howard Hughes, right, and his co-captain, TWA president Jack Frye, second from left, survey the Giant Constellation transport plane they flew from California in record time, after landing at National Airport in Washington, April 17, 1944. Hughes and Frye made the 2600-mile transcontinental trip in six hours and 58 minutes. Standing between them is Jesse Jones, Secretary of Commerce and a personal friend of Hughes.
American industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes sits in the cockpit of his new XF-11 plane, which was built in conjunction with the U.S. Army Air Force and designed especially for photo reconnaissance work, at Culver City, Calif., on July 7, 1946. The plane crashed later that day on its first flight, and although Hughes managed to escape out of the wreckage, he suffered third-degree burns and major injuries in the accident.
Firefighters stand amid the burning wreckage of the new XF-11 plane in which American industrialist and aviator Howard Hughes crashed into a house at Beverly Hills, Calif., July 7, 1946. The plane, designed for photographic reconnaissance work and built in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force, was on its maiden test flight. The column of fire on the left is rising from a broken gas main. Hughes survived the accident with massive injuries, including third-degree burns.
Aviator Howard Hughes, right, is photographed with TWA vice president John A. Collings at Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 11, 1946.
Howard Hughes, center, at small table, leans forward toward the microphone as he answers a question by Sen. Homer Ferguson, left center, directly opposite Hughes, in testifying before the Senate War Investigation sub-committee in a packed hearing room in Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 1947. Thomas Slack, Hughes' attorney, sits beside his client. Owen Brewster, R-Me., is seated at upper left end of committee table.
Howard Hughes speaks before the U.S. Senate war investigations sub-committee in Washington, D.C., Aug. 7, 1947.
Howard Hughes sits at the controls of his giant wooden flying boat, dubbed the Spruce Goose, as he checked the aircraft prior to the first and only flight of the $25 million plane, Nov. 2, 1947, off Long Beach, Calif.
Howard Hughes' 200-ton, eight-story-tall flying boat, nicknamed the Spruce Goose, is shown in the water off Long Beach, Calif., the only time it ever flew, Nov. 2, 1947. It was airborne for about a mile with Hughes at the controls.
Howard Hughes, center, is shown with Legion officers John D. Home, left, and Edward Underwood, at an American Legion luncheon in Los Angeles, Calif., in April 1952.
Dean Robert Gibson of Christ Church Cathedral, Houston's oldest Episcopal church, conducts the last rites for billionaire industrialist Howard R. Hughes at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, Texas, Wednesday, April 7, 1976. Hughes was buried in a grave next to his mother.
Click here for a photo essay on the movie, "The Aviator."