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Hughes was nearly killed in 1947 while test-piloting a new plane of his own design. It crashed in Beverly Hills, and he suffered extensive fractures and burns. He grew a mustache to cover some of the scars, and gradually became more reclusive.
Investing the Winnings. In his corporate enterprises, it was somehow always others who got hurt. Under his stewardship, RKO Radio Pictures lost $20 million between 1948 and 1953, but Hughes sold out at a profit. In his greatest legal battle, he lost control of Trans World Airlines, and in a later suit was ordered to pay the company $136 million on grounds of mismanagement and breach of antitrust laws (the case is still being appealed). Hughes abruptly sold his TWA shares in 1966, when they had reached $86 each; he collected $546 million. TWA stock closed last week at 121.
Hughes invested his TWA winnings in Nevada, which has no inheritance taxes. Besides the hotels, casinos, mining properties and airport, he bought a regional airline, now named Hughes Air West, which serves Las Vegas and other cities. Las Vegas, he declared, would some day be as large as Houston.
Hughes has grown progressively richer largely because the companies he ignored−and left alone under competent manager−prospered mightily. Hughes Tool Co. still holds about 60% of the world market for drill bits. Hughes Aircraft, an electronics-and-satellite company, has also thrived. It is controlled by the Hughes Medical Foundation, of which Howard Hughes is sole trustee. All together. Hughes companies employ about 65.000 people. It is a weakness of free enterprise that such large and varied holdings are subject to the whims of one capricious man. There are disturbing questions for the future. As Hughes grows older, he can hardly help coming increasingly under the influence of the few intimates who act as his Seeing Eyes to the world. To avoid federal inheritance taxes, he has presumably willed his estate to a foundation. But who would be the trustee? Perhaps his second wife, former Movie Actress Jean Peters, his only known heir, who is living alone at 1001 Bel Air Road in Los Angeles and awaiting divorce. Or someone cut from the same cloth as Maheu?
New Adventures. Howard Hughes can−and probably will−embark on new adventures. Last September, Hughes Aircraft and TelePrompTer. in which Hughes has an interest, jointly applied for permission to launch a private communications satellite. He might intend to combine the satellite, his extensive CATV facilities, his sports network that packages shows for independent stations, and his Las Vegas entertainment resources into one huge television production package. Or he could be planning to invest in the Bahamas. Nearly all of Paradise Island is owned by Resorts International, which he reputedly tried to buy for $85 million last year. Bahamian Prime Minister Lynden Pindling is willing to reconsider his plans for nationalizing the casinos if Hughes takes them over.