Alastair Gordon > Quotes

“Movies and aviation also attracted risk takers like Howard Hughes, who combined a career in both fields by investing millions he inherited from his father’s drilling patent. Hollywood lured the future head of TWA into flying in the first place. At the age of twenty Hughes moved from Texas to Hollywood to produce Hell’s Angels, the WWI flying epic.72 He used vintage biplanes and hired over 130 pilots to perform the dangerous stunts in which several died. Hughes learned to fly and performed one of the stunts himself. In 1932, he started the Hughes Aircraft Company, took control of TWA in 1939, and bought the RKO studio in 1948. He would put as much energy into designing a half-cup bra for Jane Russell as he did to fine-tuning the Pratt & Whitney engine of his H-1 racing plane.”
― Alastair Gordon, Naked Airport: A Comprehensive History of the World's Most Revolutionary Structure