Crash Site of Howard Hughes' prototype XF-11 (Los Angeles, California)

USA / California / Westwood / Los Angeles, California / Whittier Drive, 808
 historical layer / disappeared object  Add category
On July 7, 1946, when engine trouble developed, Hughes attempted to land his experimental XF-11 plane on the golf greens at the Los Angeles Country Club (10101 Wilshire Blvd.), but he didn't made it. Instead, he first bounced off the roofs of homes at 803 and 805 N. Linden Drive in Beverly Hills, (slightly to the southeast) and then finally smashing into this home at 808 N. Whittier Drive, destroying the plane and burning down the house.

This was the home of Lt. Colonel Charles A. Myers, the chief interpreter for the United States during the trials at Nuremberg. The plane's fuel tanks exploded, turning the house into an raging inferno & leveling the structure, resulting in over $100,000 in property damage (in 1946 dollars).

The XF-11 was shattered into pieces with flaming debris scattered everywhere from backyards to the streets, yet somehow Hughes, bloodied, broken, and burned, was still alive and conscious. Hughes managed to get out of the plane and laid next to it as it was still burning. A Marine visiting friends across the street from the Myers residence, Master Technical Sergeant William L. Durkin, risked his own life by pulling Hughes away from the burning wreckage, saving Hughes' life. Later, Sergeant Durkin was offered repeated thanks, in monetary form, by Hughes, but he declined all compensation and publicity from his act of heroism, citing that anybody should have, and would have, done the same thing in that same situation.

The resulting crash crushed Hughes' collar bone, broke six of his ribs, damaged his lungs severely, and suffered third-degree burns on his hands. Liberal dosages of morphine were prescribed to Hughes for the pain he suffered, to which is often credited as the source of his lifelong addiction to codeine and other opiates. Also, Hughes' later-trademark moustache grew as a result to cover up a scar that he acquired from this accident.

www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/XF-11_crash_site.htm
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_XF-11
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°4'23"N   118°25'5"W

Comments

  • First photo above is of one of the two 3,000 horsepower radial engines and eight-bladed contra-rotating propellers from the XF-11.
This article was last modified 12 years ago