Question: What Texas-born film producer and aviation enthusiast broke the speed record for flying around the world in 1938?
Answer: Howard Hughes. Born in Houston in 1905, Hughes inherited his father’s fortune at the age of 18, going on to produce hit films like Hell’s Angels and Scarface before embarking on an aviation career that included building the largest float plane in existence—the H-4 Hercules, dubbed the “Spruce Goose” by critics—and flying around the world in a modified Lockheed 14 in three days, 19 hours, and 17 minutes between July 10 and 14, 1938.