In Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, Howard Hughes crashes the Hughes XF-11 while testing it in 1946.
The sequence depicts a real event in Hughes’s aviation career. The XF-11 was a reconnaissance aircraft designed and built by Hughes Aircraft. During a test flight over Los Angeles, Hughes experienced serious mechanical problems, and the aircraft crashed into homes in Beverly Hills.
Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Hughes in the 2004 film, which covers his work in aviation, filmmaking, and business. The movie dramatizes several events, so its presentation is not a documentary reconstruction of every detail.
The XF-11 is sometimes confused with the H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose. Hughes also famously piloted that enormous wooden flying boat, but its well-known test flight occurred in 1947, a year after the XF-11 crash.