Hughes H-1 Racer

I ran across an image of this plane on Facebook on a "suggested page" post in my newsfeed.  I have a friend in the navy, and either he liked the page, or had friends that did.

In any case, it's a beautifully designed airplane.  I've never been big on airplanes, but this is quite an exception.  Nicknamed the "Silver Bullet," Howard Hughes built the this plane--the H-1 racer--in 1935, in an attempt to set the airspeed record.  He set about designing a highly aerodynamic plane, which led to a number of interesting design features which were new at the time.  This included retractable landing gear, and individually-machined flush-mounted rivets over the body of the plane.  The plane itself had around 1,000 horsepower.

In 2002 a man named Jim Wright built an exact replica of the plane, which is seen in photos above and  below.  It received a lot of attention from the aviation press, and was even slated to be used in the film The Aviator.  But as he was flying home from the air show in Wisconsin where it was unveiled in 2003, the plane's propellor failed, sending Jim into a fatal crash just North of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. 

I can't imagine a more spectacularly beautiful way to die.