"Miloch" wrote in message news:nr97eo03n7@drn.newsguy.com...
>
> http://www.boeing.com/history/products/h-1-racing-monoplane.page
"Hughes and his $150,000 plane took off from Eddie Martin's Airport,
located about a mile north of present-day John Wayne Airport. Following a
specially designed course, Howard Hughes was able to reach an average speed
of 352 miles per hour, shattering the previous landplane speed record by
more than 38 miles per hour. Following the official portion of the flight,
the H-1 lost power due to fuel starvation, sending both Hughes and the craft
crashing into a Santa Ana beet field. Surprisingly, neither Hughes nor the
airplane was significantly damaged, and it is alleged that his first words
after walking away from the crash were, 'We can fix her. She'll go faster.'"
http://visitanaheim.org/blog-post/2015/01/29/80th-anniversary-recluse-s-record-breaking-flight
The old Eddie Martin airport was located about a mile SE from where my high
school would later be (It was a lima bean field until 1967). There was no
runway per se. Martin’s was a commercial field, consisting of a rectangular
sod field, measuring 2,040′ x 1,320′. At some point during WWII, the Santa
Ana Army Airfield was established on land adjacent to Martin Field, about a
mile south, which became John Wayne Orange County Airport (SNA). A housing
development now stands on the site of Eddie Martin airport.
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