• 1946 – Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.

XF-11


The second Hughes XF-11 during a 1947 test flight

Role: Aerial reconnaissance
Manufacturer: Hughes Aircraft
Designer: Stanley Bell, Howard Hughes, Ed West
First flight: 7 July 1946
Status: Canceled
Primary user: United States Army Air Forces
Number built: 2
Developed from: Hughes D-2

The Hughes XF-11 (redesignated XR-11 in 1948) was a prototype military reconnaissance aircraft designed and flown by Howard Hughes and built by Hughes Aircraft Company for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Although 100 F-11s were ordered in 1943, the program was delayed beyond the end of World War II, rendering the aircraft surplus to USAAF requirements; the production contract was canceled and only two prototypes were completed. During the first XF-11 flight in 1946, piloted by Hughes, the aircraft crashed in Beverly Hills, California, and was destroyed, critically injuring him. The second prototype first flew in 1947 but was used only briefly for testing before being scrapped in 1949. The program was controversial from the beginning, leading the United States Senate to investigate the XF-11 and the Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat in 1946–1947.

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