2-839-681 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Experimental, single engine, monoplane for air racing; wood wings with blue paint; yellow markings; bare aluminum fuselage. The Hughes H-1 racer, designed by Howard Hughes and Richard Palmer and built by Glenn Odekirk, was developed to be the fastest landplane in the world. On September 13, 1935, Hughes achieved this design goal by flying the H-1 to a new world speed record of 567 kilometers (352 miles) per hour at Santa Ana, California. Also known as the Hughes 1B, the H-1 was designed with two sets of wings: a short set with a span of 7.6 meters (25 feet) for speed record flight, and a long set with a span of 9.2 meters (31 feet, 9 inches) for transcontinental flight. The aircraft as it is exhibited here is equipped with the long set. Hughes broke the transcontinental U.S. speed record in the H-l on January 19, 1937, flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds. His average speed for the 4,000-kilometer (2,490-mile) flight was 535 kilometers (332 miles) per hour.