Test flight almost Howard Hughes’ last

July 7, 1946: Howard Hughes was testing the XF-11 photo reconnaissance plane he had designed for the U.S. Army when the plane experienced propeller trouble over Beverly Hills. He tried to reach the Los Angeles Country Club’s golf course -- but crashed just short of it.

“The giant photographic plane, both its powerful engines whining, tore more than half the roof from a two-story dwelling” at 803 N. Linden Drive, The Times reported. “Simultaneously, the plane’s right wing sliced through the upstairs bedroom of the home next door.”

After caroming off the garage behind the second house, the plane “continued its swath of devastation,” hitting the Whittier Drive home of an interpreter at the war crimes trials in Europe, the newspaper said.

One of the plane’s 3,000-horsepower engines flew more than 60 feet, crashing through the interpreter’s home and that of a retired Swedish industrialist next door.

Pulled from the plane, Hughes was described as being near death, with a punctured lung and eight broken ribs. But the millionaire, who had survived other crashes, recovered.