Hughes H-1 Racer

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The H-1 was a racing aircraft built by Howard Hughes' company in 1935. It set a world airspeed record and a transcontinental speed record across the United States.

Contents

[edit] History

During his work on his movie Hell's Angels, 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 plane was given many names, but is commonly known as the H-1. It was the first aircraft model produced by Hughes Aircraft Corporation. Many groundbreaking technologies were developed during the construction process, including individually machined flush rivets that left the aluminium skin of the aircraft completely smooth. Also it had retractable landing gear to further increase the speed of the plane. It was fitted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1535 twin-row 14-cylinder radial engine of 25.2 liters, putting out over 1,000 horsepower (750 kW).

The H-1 first flew in 1935 and promptly broke the world land-plane speed record with Hughes at the controls, clocking 352 mph (566 km/h) averaged over 4 timed passes. Hughes apparently ran the plane out of fuel and managed to crash-land without serious damage to either himself or H-1. As soon as Hughes exited the plane when he crashed it in a beet field, his only comment was: "We can fix her. She'll go faster." At the time, the world seaplane speed record was 440 mph (709 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 trans-continental speed record attempt. The most significant change was the fitting of a new, longer set of wings that gave the plane a lighter wing loading. On the 19th of January in 1937, a year and a half after his previous land-plane speed record in the H-1, Hughes set a new trans-continental 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 mph (518 km/h). [1]

Hughes fully expected the United States Army Air Forces to embrace his plane's new design and make the H-1 the basis for a new generation of U.S. fighter planes. However, for reasons that are obscure, this did not happen. Instead, when World War II started, the USAAF was fielding a fleet of P-39 Airacobras and P-40 Warhawks. After the war, Howard Hughes claimed that "it was quite apparent to everyone that it [the Japanese Zero] had been copied from the Hughes [H-1 Racer]." Hughes had most likely made this statement with reference to both the wing planform, and the tail empennage design, the similiairty of the Zero's and his racer's being striking.(Howard Hughes, in his own words). Other aviation historians have suggested that the H-1 Racer inspired other radial-engine fighters such as the P-47 Thunderbolt, and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (William Wraga (2000)). However, there is no direct testimony from the other aircraft designers which would support these ideas, nor is such evidence likely to be found. Further, the P-47 was derived from the Seversky P-35, which in turn can be traced back to earlier Seversky models predating the H-1.

The original H-1 Racer was donated to the Smithsonian in 1975 and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

The H-1 Racer was the last plane built by a private individual to set the world speed record; every aircraft to hold the honor since was designed by military forces.

A replica of the H-1 was built by Jim Wright of Cottage Grove, Oregon, and first flew in 2002, but was destroyed in a crash on August 4, 2003, killing Wright. Wright, at the time, was trying to return to Oregon from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he had displayed the plane at the Experimental Aircraft Association's 2003 event. On his way home, he landed briefly in Gillette, Wyoming, to refuel. While on the ground in Gillette, Wright met briefly with local reporters and said that the plane had been having "gear problems," which he likely meant as an analogy between the modified Hamilton Standard constant speed propeller and an automobile transmission stuck in low gear. He then departed, crashing about an hour later, just north of the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.[2] The official accident report [3] indeed points to a failure of a counterweight on the constant speed propeller. On December 17, 2003, Cottage Grove State Airport was dedicated as Jim Wright Field.

[edit] Trivia

The second set of wings were painted blue, but the original (short-span) wings were painted red. Various documents (including an article from TIME magazine, Sep 23, 1935) confirm this, but it is still a little-known fact since there are no color photographs of the plane from the 1930s and the wings have always been depicted as blue in modern media (such as in the film The Aviator).

Over time, the wings have been marked with the registration numbers "NR258Y", "NX258Y", and finally, simply "R258Y". Several photos exist of a transitional period in which the "X" was painted directly on top of the "R" (see the photo at the top of this page). The color of the registration letters at the time of the record setting flights is said to have been white. Hughes later repainted the letters to the current yellow color to match the color of his company's logo.

[edit] Specifications (H-1 Racer, original wings)

The H-1 Racer at the National Air and Space Museum
The H-1 Racer at the National Air and Space Museum

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Length: 27 ft 0 in (8.23 m)
  • Wingspan: 31 ft 9 in (9.67 m)
  • Height: ()
  • Wing area: 138 ft² (12.8 m²)
  • Empty weight: 3,565 lb (1,620 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 5,492 lb (2,496 kg)
  • Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney R-1535[4] radial engine, 700 hp (521 kW)

Performance


[edit] Sources

[edit] See also

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