Senate War Investigating Committee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Senate War Investigating Committee was formed by R. Owen Brewster in 1947 to investigate contracts delivered to Hughes Aircraft for the Hughes XF-11 and Hughes H-4 Hercules (or "Spruce Goose"). The contracts, totalling 40 million USD, never resulted in any aircraft delivered to the United States Air Force, though Hughes stated that he spent far more of his own money than was granted to him by the government.
The committee accused Howard Hughes of corruption in the methods he used to obtain government contracts for the aircraft. It was stated that Hughes had held parties with women paid to be present in order to soften up government officials who had the power to grant the contracts to him.
However, the Committee never returned any formal report: it was abandoned amidst claims that Brewster was only leading the committee at the request of personal friend Juan Trippe.
The Committee is depicted in the latter half of The Aviator, a movie about the life of Howard Hughes.
