* Moving account of this most charismatic and elusive of aviators *Provides details of Hughes's top-secret airfield outside Los Angeles George Marrett, a test pilot for Howard Hughes, tells a fascinating insider's account of the aviation genius who set speed records in the 1930s and went on to develop some of America's most famous aircraft and weapons. Marrett draws on his personal experiences and those of other confidants to take readers inside Hughes's complex world- a world that has kept its secrets for nearly six decades. Both a gifted storyteller and an expert in the field of aviation, the author integrates stories of Hughes the ace pilot with Hughes the designer who insisted on test-flying every plane he built, and Hughes the businessman who became America's first billionaire. Through revealing, humorous and sometimes tragic stories, Marrett begins in the 1920s when Hughes learned to fly at the Santa Monica airport, continues into the 1940s with Hughes's famous flight of the gigantic Spruce Goose, follows into the post-World War II era and the invention of airborne radar at the Hughes Aircraft Company, and then moves into the 1960s and 1970s at the Culver City airport where Marrett tested weapons systems that are still in use by the US military.