Texan oil fortune heir Howard Hughes refuses to wisely invest and enjoy his millions, preferring to riskily spend on his passions: airplanes and Hollywood, so in the 1930s he produces an unprecedented air combat blockbuster Hell Angels which he keeps improving to staff's despair, with Katherine Hepburn as bonus lover. He moves on to improving airplane design and running airline TWA, the sole US-overseas challenger for PanAm. His germophobia gets utterly out of hand and test-piloting himself nearly breaks every bone is his body, but the worst challenge comes from senator Ralph Owen Brewster, who uses the FBI to threaten Hughes with ruin and public exposure as 'war profiteer' unless he accepts personal friend Juan Trippe's company PanAm being given a virtual monopoly on international flights.—KGF Vissers