HUGHES H-1 RACER   PART 1

IT WAS THE Golden Age of aviation. It was the 1930s, when Howard Hughes and his H-1 Racer set a world speed record as well as one for crossing the United States. In Parts 1–3 today and following, tidbits about Hughes and his craft include extremes of streamlined construction, two separate sets of wings, exhibitions of bravado on Hughes’ part, and a splendid GMax project for my Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Aero Speed Records, Land or Sea. “Racing Improves the Breed” applies to aircraft as well as horse racing. As noted by aviation.stackexchange.com “For nearly all of the 1930s, the fastest aeroplanes were all of the seaplane category.” One reason for this was the international Schneider Trophy competition, originally known as the Coupe d’Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider. 

Why seaplanes? As noted here at SimanaitisSays, “Curiously, the reason was technical, not a matter of spectacle. As aircraft became more powerful, they got larger with heavier fuel loads. With that came a need for longer take-off and landing space.” Water became the perfect venue. 

Enter Howard Hughes. Young entrepreneur Howard Hughes was already enamored of flight when he produced his blockbuster movie Hell’s Angels, 1930.

Hughes hired Glenn Odekirk to maintain the Hell’s Angels fleet of World War I aircraft. Together, they set out—and succeeded—in designing and building the fastest land-based aircraft in the world, what came to be known as the Hughes H-1.

H-1 Technicalities. Lightness was an important design goal. For example, weight of a water-cooled inline engine was traded for the H-1’s air-cooled radial, despite the radial’s greater frontal area requiring a bell-shape cowl.

The chosen powerplant was a Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp Junior R-1535. The R identified its radial nature; the Twin, its two banks, each of seven cylinders. The engine’s total displacement was 1535 cu. in., 25.2 liters. The Junior’s parent, the R-1830, displaced 30.0 liters. 

Centrifugally supercharged, it normally produced 700 hp. Modified with pistons of higher compression ratio, the Twin Wasp Junior produced 1000 hp, required 100 Octane fuel, and consumed this fuel at 100 gallons per hour. (More on this in Part 2.) 

A Polished Design. Hughes, Odekirk, and aero specialist Richard Palmer optimized aerodynamics with a large-scale model (more than two feet in length) tested at California Institute of Technology’s wind tunnel. 

The actual craft’s aluminum monocoque fuselage was fabricated with a multitude of rivets, each individually machined, flush, and polished. Its plywood-covered wing was also highly polished to reduce drag. Landing gear, even the tail skid, was retractable. 

The H-1 featured two separate wing configurations, a small span of 24 ft. 5 in. for record setting, one of 31 ft. 9 in. providing enhanced lift for greater fuel loads when cross-country racing. 

Tomorrow in Part 2, Hughes sets a world record, gets to know a Santa Ana, California, beet field, and later flies the H-1 in record time from Burbank, California, to Newark, New Jersey. These adventures give rise to modifications of my H-1 GMax model—and of its Hughes—in Part 3. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2021