5. Howard Hughes

Pioneer Aviator and Entrepreneur

The American business magnate was a man with several skills. He was a skilled aviator, engineer, a famous filmmaker and a prominent philanthropist. The billionaire was born in Huston and dropped out of California Institute for Technology and Rice University. He then went on to initiate his multi million venture with Hugh Aircrafts. Pertaining to his knack for controversy, Hughes indulged in several controversies that include producing several controversial films like The Outlaw, The Racket and Hell’s Angel.

 He is often remembered for his extra ordinarily eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle worsened by his obsessive compulsive disorder and chronic disease. Hughes Aircraft Company, a division of Hughes Tool Company, was originally founded by Hughes in 1932, in a rented corner of a Lockheed Aircraft Corporation hangar in Burbank, California, to build the H-1 racer. During and after World War II, Hughes fashioned his company into a major defense contractor. In spite of several setbacks and accidents, Hughes legacy still lives on with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.