The Ridiculously Expensive Plane Built by an Insane Man
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ก.ค. 2023
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On July 7, 1946, the XF-11 was scheduled for its maiden flight with Howard Hughes at the controls. After years of political and economic negotiations with the government and military, the businessman had finally managed to take his reconnaissance aircraft airborne.
However, once in the air, Hughes, always one to push the envelope, threw caution to the wind and soared the XF-11 to new heights, testing both the aircraft's limits and his own capabilities.
As the flight stretched on, the cameras ran out of film - then, disaster struck. Suddenly, the XF-11 began to yaw hard to the right, and for all his experience, Hughes found himself in a terrifying situation beyond his control.
The aircraft kept losing critical altitude as Hughes attempted to reach the golf course of the Los Angeles Country Club. The innovative engineering of the XF-11 and Hughes' unparalleled ambition would be put to the test like never before…
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9:04 😅
Came looking for this comment, thanks
You guys often have little factual errors and this episode takes it. Complete w photo of the wrong President. It makes me wonder what other points you are in too much of a hurry to verify, motivating you to just assume something.
You presume to present facts. Please then work like real journalists.
You can thank H.H. for satillite tv.
@crackabarrel dude! What's your ish? Are you bored or something? So they put up a photograph of the wrong President. It's kind of an understandable mistake given their last name / family relations and the fact that Theodore Roosevelt did in fact have a son (Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt III) serving in the war in the same theater as then Colonel Elliott Roosevelt. A mistake to be sure, but not one worthy of all this vitriol.
Secondly, Howard Hughes was absolutely a genius. He was also completely nuts. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in my experience they often go hand-in-hand. I have lived and worked in Las Vegas for many years. I have worked with people who knew the Hughes family and Howard himself. There's a lot that has been written about him over the years, but I've asked multiple people with first-hand knowledge of the family about him because I have always been fascinated with Aviation and his contributions to it. Their responses vary slightly but the theme is consistent. The most brilliant person they've ever known, also crazy. In fact my favorite characterization was, "Howard was someone who just didn't belong in society. Too many expectations that he could not meet."
Yes, I suspect it's true that many of his conditions went undiagnosed at the time that in today's discussion of Mental Health would be identifiable and treatable. But this is not the venue to have that kind of discussion. So why don't we dial back and all the tattle tailing and stuff. Just enjoy the video. Or don't and move on.
Huge error! You have the wrong Roosevelt. Theodor was President 40 years before, FDR is who you wanted to mention.
Correct.
Need someone to fact check the script.
Not huge
This is the Dark series. Facts don't matter.
@@kenttheboomer721that's bs
DiCaprio's movie about Hughes is very good for whoever wants to dig in, in this particular event and a have general notion about Hughes life.
Howard Hughes was anything but insane when it came to aeronautics.
It sounds more like he was absolutely a brilliant innovator, and was impatient with the slow, methodical pace of the design and production processes.
But he sure wasn't practical.
He also fell into recreational drug use which caused an excaberation of his anxiety and ocd.
Many brilliant men have fallen into similar fates, but if you choose to focus only on their contributionss to society instead of their human foibles, you run into the problems with school textbooks and "wokeisim".
It's wholly appropriate to remember that we're all human, and aren't perfect. Children don't need fairy tales to shelter them from reality.
he was the one that said your afraid to take the chance, fine I will..... lot of innovation came from him.. simply because he wasnt afraid of a mistake he new who inevidably get correct,,,, hence we learn from ou8r mistakes or were bound to repeat them :-)
@@tvtothepoint wokeisim, like can we stop use MAGA troll language and Trump voters that watch Murdoch's gutter trash news Fox? Not American but its the most shit term used by Conservative scum that has picked up around the world.
I have read a couple of NACA reports on how to improve the P-38 to increase its critical mach speed and they largely described the design of the XF-11 The proposed change had a lot to do with avoiding rapid changes in cross section and streamlining the engine pods/pylons and the cockpit pod. It basically pre-dated the Whitcomb Area Rule by over a decade.
Howard Hughes was not insane by any means. He was eccentric it is true, but his place in history may consider him as an "original" and an innovator. I often think that if he and Kelly Johnson had partnered up we would have had some amazing aircraft in the 50s.
THANK YOU!
@@user-ef2bx9fb4y Not necessarily. He was eccentric and probably had a lot of mistrust for people. Maybe he didn't want his DNA anywhere he couldn't control because he feared being cloned.
@TheGospelQuartetParadise : If you think d.n.a. testing and analysis was around during WW2, your as nuts as Hughes. Human d.n.a. was not mapped out until 2003. Saving your pee is just disgusting.
Yes he was brilliant, and yes he was mentally ill.
He was undoubtedly mentally infirm and not of sound mind, he was not sane
Howard Hughes was NOT insane. I have read many biographies of Hughes, because I admire him a lot, and the doctrors concur the problems with Hughes was thet he had a severe case of OCD and had we had medication around them like Prozac, Fluoxetine Hydrochloride, he would have been just fine. The man was actually brilliant.
While he was able to keep it in check, the OCD drove him to focus on some of his finest work.
I read in a medical journal his final diagnosis was multiple serious head injuries multiplied whatever else was wrong
Ty!
"Normal" is boring anyway!!
OCD is a clinical psychosis. He was insane.
Well, I've put up with a lot of silliness from this site, but the contention that Theodore Roosevelt was president during the 1940's is my limit. I'm outta here.
Yea that’s a big goof
US Aircraft design " Law " . You can't build a Successful and Fast Warplane out of Wood .
De Havilland Mosquito : " Hold my Beer " .
Hughes wasn't insane, he had sever OCD, and a lot of his really odd behavior began after this crash
Ty!
Easy mistake to make, he probably confused Leonardo DiCaprio with the real Howard Hughes and from what I’ve seen of DiCaprio I can see why the author saw insanity!
@@chrish5791what on earth are u babbling about?
If Howard had gotten help to overcome his drug addiction, no telling what he could have innovated in the following years.
Yes OCD is a mental illness
That title is a lot over the top. Hughes was not insane at the time of these events. His issues began after these events.
I understand you need to attract views, and sensational titles help, however, there is no need to be grossly inaccurate.
I guess it just depends how fast and lose you are playing with the word insane.😂
Agree 100%. This is Dark Skies, not some sensationalist media channel. We love you for your docs, for the information on beautiful aircraft. Don’t start selling out for clicks. Howard Hughes is a legend. Respect the man
@@jdbarnes5987 by medical standards today, he was insane. insanity can manifest in a variety of forms: me being an insomniac makes me insane... so what? Severe OCD is a severe mental illness.
in·san·i·ty
noun
the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness.
One of the three houses Hughes crashed into was that of actress Rosemary DeCamp. Rosemary co-started in the Bob Cummings show. Cummings was something of an aviation pioneer: He was taught to fly by his godfather, Orville Wright, and held the first issued civilian pilot trainers' license.
Thanks for that. Very interesting bit of the history of this incident, largely not talked about. Small world indeed.
@@Matt.Thompson.1976 Bob was quite the aviation buff. His second Bob Cummings Show would feature an Aerocar. The first Bob Cummings Show was also the first ever summer replacement series.
@@Matt.Thompson.1976 The first production C-69 Constellation 43-10310 was piloted by Howard Hughes and Jack Frye on a speed run across the U.S. from Lockheed (Burbank,Cal.) on 17 April 1944. When the aircraft arrived at Wright Field in Ohio, Orville Wright was there, and he was invited to fly along on a 50 minute flight. source / images: This Day In Aviation 26 April 1944. Hughes Research Labs (HRL) and other facilities were located in Culver City,Ca.(business reasons) along with the main plant and runway. HRL moved to Malibu - a spectacular campus behind Pepperdine Univ. Hughes built helicopters,too.
Man, I wish you guys would proofread your content and fact-check for errors prior to your releases!
5:30 - Theodore Roosevelt was not the 'then president' in 1943 and the fact that you posted Teddy's picture makes the error even more egregious!!!
This may be obvious to most, but it exposes a lack of care with your production values and harms your credibility!
You tend to make errors that are obvious, yet are allowed through.
Get better!!!
I had not known about the post-crash XF/XR-11 aircraft.
Thank you for that information.
Howard Hughes was far from insane. I worked (at times) for him and Art Collins and both were geniuses. Mr. Hughes flight of the P-61 left him injured for life and the complications left him an object of ridicule. He is still a pioneer worthy of note in the same vein as Art Collins (whom I knew as an employer) and Seymour Cray. If you don't know who I'm talking about, look them up.
How exactly did Hughes and Cray intersect? Or are you saying you knew them each separately? Also, how old are you?
It’s only ridiculously expensive because it’s a prototype. Build enough of them and they become cheap. This could have been a very effective heavy fighter and Howard Hughes was an innovative genius. Prototypes often crash until the bugs are sorted out.
However with the delays and non wartime skill of his shops, by the time it was ready the war was over and the long range fighter need was over, as the stratobomber couldn't easily be reached by Zeros and Mitsubishi fighters.
There were several planes that could serve the purpose already in production, and thousands of airframes were being parked in Arizona as the occupation years USAAF didn't need them
True it could have been used in Korea, but in 1946...there was no Korean war and jets were taking over by then.
Often? More often than not.
@@STho205 In Korea they were already facing Mig`s. Even other jets like F-84 and F-80 were having troubles with them, let alone prop plane.
Could have was the key phrase. It’s obvious now that 1946 was too late for prop development but the design was sound. Pretty sure Hughes wasn’t considering imminent obsolescence when he started out. We have the benefit of hindsight and early jets were problematic. The F7 Tigercat was still in limited service in 1953, the Griffon Spitfires , Sea Furies, Corsairs, Skyraiders and many other prop planes still had secondary roles until much later. So yeah, could have.
@@ThreenaddiesRexMegistus it was pretty obvious that this is a civilian race plane looking for a purpose in the USAAF because the war made it impossible for civ aviation to keep innovating for their own purposes.
Plus the War Department had deep pockets in 1942.
This man is a legend.
Indeed he is - for getting facts and pictures wrong!
@@DrivermanO not many facts are wrong, and its difficult to find stuff on the XF-11. Using P-38s is fine at times because it took inspiration from it
@@thesnazzycomet No? President of USA in WW2 was Theodore Roosevelt - with a picture of him? Really? Can't get much more wrong than that!
@@DrivermanOLarge sections of text (and the general order of presentation) are taken directly from Wikipedia articles. Seriously: check out the article on the Hughes XF-11: you'll see a lot of verbatim quotes.
Pretty plane
Nice looking plane.
5:40 - Elliott Roosevelt is the son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S. President (1933-1945), not of Theodore Roosevelt who was the 26th U.S. President (1901 - 1909) and had already died in 1919...
Dark Sky's is really taking it in the groin today
Hughes was a genius in ways and one-man engineering firm. He just wasn't a proper test pilot with strict and careful rules.
Eccentric? Somewhat. Insane? No. Brilliant? Absolutely.
"...then President, Theodore..." Really? Pretty sure AI is writing your scripts. Either that, or you are trolling.
In any event, these constant errors have cost you a subscriber.
I think he's doing it on purpose to get people to comment about it in return it helps the algorithm😅
Am tiring of these blatant inaccuracies. Am becoming less likely to bother with this needlessly dramatic content.
Am better off with Rex's Hanger and his well researched content.
Agreed. I’m done
Mad respect for people that make awsome stuff and use it . Remember, your homeboy Hughes used to test fly his own designs before he would put another pilot in danger. The only people that worried were rich , the rest of us still cheer that man on .
Theodore Roosevelt also wasn't president in the 1940s. That was Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy's distant cousin.
As a lover of aviation, Howard has always been a hero of mine. As others have already stated, such a beautiful aircraft. Long live the pioneering aviation spirit of Howard Hughes.
If this one had been modified to take turbojets and wings re-profiled for high altitude operation, then it would have been useful as post-WW2 reconnassaince aircraft.
In other words, a completely different aircraft.
@@dabraze No, just 90% of the potential to do what the U2 did, but much earlier.
Hughes was NOT INSANE, not even close. He was a test pilot but not school trained as a test pilot. He was told of an oil leak and to be back on the ground within 45 minutes. He should never have been released to go fIy that flight until that Ieak was fixed.
The Fokker D1 and these engines would have been a great combination .
Did you mean the G1?
@@SatumangoTheGreat ups typo
Others obviously beat me to it…. But HOW could you possibly mistake Theodore Roosevelt with FDR ??
lol
Indian scriptwriter probably
His quirkiness manifestated itself after his crash.
It's said that genius and insanity are very close cousins.
My Dad served in Army Air Corps. I never heard him, or anyone else refer to it as the 'USAAC', it's always the 'Army Air Corps'.
Absolutely gorgeous airplane!
If only Hugh’s was born 10 years later, he would have an endless budget through our out of control military industrial complex
Howard Hughes was Insanely brilliant!
Musk will be wearing Kleenex boxes as shoes in 10 years.
No, he’ll still be innovating and pushing the limits human exploration and knowledge. He will still be wealthy and relevant. You however, will be irrelevant, and probably living a life of quiet desperation, statistically probably divorced, and doomed to die in complete obscurity.
@@haveaday1812 He'll have 10 inch curly toenails.
@@haveaday1812 He'll milk a billion dollars from the government to develop a car for his failed tunnel that will go 60 miles an hour max and it will be called the Excuse Caboose.
Probably be living in Russia
nice warthunder promo. been playing that game for over 11 years and it still is my go to game for good times :D
yeah i have been playing it for quite a few years daily though lately there has been a mass influx of retarded casual gamers that refuse to learn how to play and win
All prototypes are ridiculous expensive and Hughes was not insane. He was very focused.
Theodor Roosevelt was not the President during WW2. Franklin Roosevelt was. Ol' Teddy wasn't even alive then.
"was met by the son of the then President, Theodore Roosevelt". I think not; Teddy's nephew was president from 1932 till his death in 1944. That father was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
A true aviation masterpiece. One of the most beautiful prop planes to take to the skies in my opinion. He was a great aviator who history just did not understand because of his fight with mental illness.
When you cant even get the right Roosevelt picture it makes you question the rest of the video(s)
Absolutely gorgeous airplane!. Hughes wasn't insane! How about an eccentric genius?.
i read this story years ago in a readers digest. this is the first time i heard that hughs knew about the prop reversal issue beforehand
My favourite aircraft! Thanks for the vid!
5:37 - Son of THEN president Teddy Roosevelt? Who died in 1919? Keep your Roosevelts straight!
Happy to see the dark series sponsored by WT!
P-38 is so sexy, especially in polished aluminum form. Uff
a beautiful aircraft!
If only our current political and industrial "leaders" were this "inssne" today.
Elon Musk!
An amazing looking aircraft with almost no military use except, perhaps, as a high speed photo recon platform. O.K.... who is going to put out a 1/48 kit?
I knew exactly what this video was the moment I saw the nose of the plane.
One of the few episodes that I've seen errors on your channel. You stated Elliot Roosevelt was son of the SITTING PRESIDENT Theodore Roosevelt. Whoops !!!!! Still love your work !!!
He wasn't insane.
Though he had very severe OCD.
He probably had alzheimer's in his latter years, though you could have called him a bit eccentric at that time.
I kinda wonder if he wasn't a little autistic, honestly.
A massive germ-a-fob.
the title describes asicly every plane on this chanel lmao
Hughes wasn't insane! How about an eccentric genius?
the difference between eccentricity and insanity is often wealth.
A lot of geniuses are eccentrics.
One of the most beautiful aircraft ever built
You mentioned, rear propeller @09:47, and again @10:26, the right rear, propeller. What rear propellers??? Howard was fortunate as in not, to kill innocent people, on the ground. Insane man?? You'd have to be, to hang out with 'Katherine'🤭.
I bet the backroom politics and kick backs from Hughes competitors had a lot to do with the delays. The probably figured they'd let Hughes do the rough work and if it worked they'd get him to subcontract some of the work out or take the designs the government paid for and transfer them to another company. Kind of like they did to the guy who designed and built the original Jeep. Loved the video. Thanks for sharing. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya
FRANKLIN!!!! Not TEDDY!!!! Lol I believe this to be the only mistake I’ve ever caught in your videos. I’m a longtime fan. Keep up with the good work. Just watch out for Presidential dynasties 😂
Are you serious?? Franklin Roosevelt was President during world war 2 , not Teddy Roosevelt.
Those errors do drive up the comment sections and maintains views. Good Bait.
They got me. My last time though. Hack analyzing info for the video. The moment I hear "The Stupid" I stop watching. Did the plane crash? I gave up because the TH-camrs have no respect for their audience.
Recent theories run towards him suffering from a closed head injury after the crash landing. Without proper diagnosis and treatment, more extreme aspects of his personality came to the forefront more frequently.
Historical inaccuracy: the commentator says Col. Roosevelt presented a recommendation to Air Force General Arnold in 1943. The U.S. Air Force did not exist until 1947. What he might have meant was the US Army Air Corps, not Air Force.
Uh . . . uh . . . uh . . . you didn't just leave out a tiny detail did you?? (The gigantic crash that almost killed Hughes.)
Quite the visionary
Howard Hughes was THE goat
Great video!I was following the Wikipedia entry as you narrated it near word for word from the article wiki has for this aircraft!
Are you only just now discovering this is how most youtube videos are made?
@5:32 There is an important error in the narration and the accompanying visuals: Brigadier General Elliot Roosevelt (he would attain that rank before retiring) was not the son of 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (whose photo is also erroneously displayed @5:38) but the son of the then incumbent and 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Just a minor mistake in an otherwise brilliant mini-documentary about this unique aircraft and its relevance in world's aviation history, yet worth pointing out for the sake of accuracy.
This may sound stupid, but I learned about Howard Hughes from a great game - LA Noire 😅 red entire Wikipedia site about hin afterwards. Guy was amazing visionary.
Spruce goose
@@Fearless1247 game was actually right that he hated that nickname, guyz at Rockstar did a great history reaserch making this awesome game.
Sounds like a great recommendation for the US military budget!
he made all aircrafts like this for next ten years
Mad Genious.
5:38 I'm pretty sure Teddy Roosevelt was not President at this time.
He was in office from 1901 to 1909.
I think his cousin was president at that time.
Aviation aside, wealth aside, Hughes is a case study in what comes out the other end when you forcefeed a child's mind with a topic you don't understand, filling in the blanks with overzealous scrutiny.
"The ridiculously expensive plane built by an insane man." What, no love for the Spruce Goose?
WRONG. HUGHES was a genius . Oil bits, underwire bras, hospital beds that articulate…. A bit odd but insane….not even close. Talent to the end!
Got your Roosevelt's a bit mixed up. Teddy was long gone by WWII.
Hughes was certainly NOT insane at this time. There we can have debates over his sanity later in his life, but at this time I believe he was in his mental prime !
5:17 Why are we looking at footage of a Hughes AIM-4 Falcon missle control surface test when this video is supposed to be about the XR/XF-11? Odd to say the least.
God bless Howard Hughes.
Insane is showing the wrong aircraft in your videos and looping the same footage. 😂
Teddy Roosevelt wasn't the president during WWII, that was his cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
This guy really sounds like Dick Winters(Damien Lewis) band of brothers
Who needed a propeller airplane in the late 40s anyways? Jet engines were the way to go.
What happened to the airframe of the 2nd aircraft?
Another prop aircraft that arrived too late for WW2 in a time when jets were taking over.
How about a prop aircraft built during Well used in Korea and used in Viet Nam? A1Skyraider. Viet Nam? AC-47, AC-119,AC-130. OnMark B-26K
The one thing I take issue with here is labeling Hughes insane. He was rather eccentric and focused rather hard on his work, but he definitely wasn't insane.
Howard Hughes was his own worst enemy in many of his business dealings.
wave of the future
I just seen a plane just like this fly over my house a few days ago, it was flying very low and very easy to see
Probably the P-38 Lightening. There are a couple of modern aircraft that resemble the P-38, but they are rare.
@@wrecklass I just looked up the p-38, and that’s exactly what I seen. It looked like a silver color as well. Thanks for the info!
@@alexsmith5797Count yourself lucky, as the man said it's rare to see one flying.
No notice of course.
Not the first or only time he tried to off himself in one of his crazy planes.
Consolidated Vultee, not Consolidated Voltae….
If I was a covert military adjunct of the US, I would be looking at who is playing this video game very successfully.
WarThunder? No it's essentially an arcade game. DCS would be a much better game to judge from a simulator perspective.
Throw back Thursday on old engineering board
Hi please also cover 1971 indo pak war one of key cold war moments on verge of nuclear strikes
It's hard to fault the guy. Probably dumped a fortune. Wood is obviously unusable. The Moquito, an excellent aircraft, the waking nightmare of Nazis, proved that. So fast, it won't need guns. Mount guns immediately.
The similarity to the lightning is mere happenstance, obviously.
Thank you. You poured your heart, soul, fortune into the project. You made a difference, young man. Well done.