Q 01/05

Howard Hughes was born in 1905 in which state?

A) California

B) Oklahoma

C) Nevada

D) Texas

Answer · why

D) Texas

Texas: orphaned there at 18, he had a judge who had been his father's friend declare him a legal adult, so that he could take over the family tool com...

Q 02/05

The Hughes family fortune came from what invention patented by Howard Hughes Sr.?

A) A roller cutter drill bit

B) A rotary oil pump

C) A pipeline valve

D) A refinery cracking process

Answer · why

A) A roller cutter drill bit

A roller cutter drill bit: patented in 1909, its toothed cones ground through hard rock that stopped older bits, opening oil fields nobody could reach...

Q 03/05

Which school did Hughes drop out of shortly after his father's death in 1924?

A) Stanford University

B) Rice University

C) Caltech

D) University of Texas

Answer · why

B) Rice University

Rice University, then the Rice Institute: he left at 18 on inheriting most of the family firm, and the next year married Ella Rice, a great-niece of t...

Q 04/05

Stan Lee said he modelled which Marvel superhero's civilian identity on Howard Hughes?

A) Ant-Man

B) Doctor Strange

C) Mister Fantastic

D) Iron Man

Answer · why

D) Iron Man

Iron Man: Stan Lee gave Tony Stark the tycoon's looks, his defence contracts and his playboy reputation, and Marvel later named Stark's inventor fathe...

Q 05/05

Hughes poured a then-enormous budget into which 1930 aviation epic?

A) Hell's Angels

B) Sky Devils

C) The Dawn Patrol

D) Wings

Answer · why

A) Hell's Angels

Hell's Angels: Hughes took over as director, was badly hurt crashing one of the planes himself, and spent so much that even a box-office hit could not...