Howard Hughes Signed Photograph.

HUGHES, Howard.

$9,500.00

Item Number: 109582

Rare United States Air Force photograph of legendary aviator Howard Hughes, Major General Oscar Westover, and General of the Air Force Henry H. Arnold. Signed and inscribed by each aviation pioneer, “O. Westover Maj. Gen. A.C. Chief of the Air Corps”, “Howard Hughes”, and “H. Arnold Brig Gen. A.C.” Major General Oscar Westover succeeded Benjamin Foulois as Chief of the Air Corps in 1935 and, on September 21, 1938, perished in an air crash at Burbank, California. Henry H. Arnold succeeded Westover as Chief of Air Corps on September 29, 1938. Arnold rose to command the Army Air Forces immediately prior to the American entry into World War II and directed its hundred-fold expansion from an organization of little more than 20,000 men and 800 first-line combat aircraft into the largest and most powerful air force in the world. He additionally moonlighted as a silent film stunt pilot and was portrayed on film by actor Walter O. Miles in the 1977 American made-for-television biographical film The Amazing Howard Hughes, starring Tommy Lee Jones as Hughes. In 1946, Hughes performed the first flight of the prototype U.S. Army Air Forces reconnaissance aircraft, the XF-11, near Hughes airfield at Culver City, California. The XF-11 crashed in Beverly Hills, destroying three houses. Hughes was rescued by Marine Master Sgt. William L. Durkin, who happened to be in the area visiting friends. It is rumored that Hughes sent a check to the Marine weekly for the remainder of his life as a sign of gratitude. In fine condition. Exceptionally rare, signed three major figures in the history of American aviation.

Howard Hughes was an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers and designers. He spent the rest of the 1930s and much of the 1940s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose). He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, renaming it Hughes Airwest. Hughes was included in Flying Magazine's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No. 25. Today, his legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Howard Hughes Corporation.