Of course, the H-4 flight was intentional - he needed to prove that it would fly. What he didn’t need to show is that it would probably only fly reasonbly well in ground effect (-:
Anyway, I’ve already said that he showed lousy judgement. BTW, he won the Congressional medal for the Lodestar flight, but he won the Harmon trophy for other flights, mainly record-setting flights in the H-1. I have no idea how that airplane flew, but looking at the wingspan, the size of the engine, the configuration of the gear, and the wing planform, my guess is that it was a handful.
Was he a bad pilot? In overall terms, I’d say yes, simply because judgement is a huge part of being a good pilot and Hughes showed some bad judgement on more than one occasion. But was he a good stick-and-rudder man? I’d say there is evidence that he was. He did, after all, manage to put the H-1 down in a field and walk away without a scratch, and he made numerous successfull test flights of the XF-11 and other designs.
I disagree completely. Movies that strive to get the details accurate pull you into the story. When Rounders was made, the director and actors went to great lengths to get the poker details exactly right. That didn’t just impress poker fans, but reviewers who knew nothing about the game said that it certainly sounded authentic. Sloppiness in the details matters.
Besides, this picture was a biopic, recounting historical events. They should be done as accurately as possible. If you want silly fun, go see a Jerry Bruckheimer film. If you want to believe that what you’re seeing on screen is an accurate depiction of what really happened, turn to someone with an eye for detail like Scorsese or James Cameron.
It’s a difficult one to lose though. It’s a bit like reading a news paper article. If you know nothing about the facts of the story then you can read with mild interest or whatever. But if you were there then you can’t help but note the inaccuracies which show the article for the piece of sensationalist tripe it is.
I’m not saying that the Aviator was sensationalist tripe though! As I said, I enjoyed the movie itself though I felt it dragged a little at the end. And I concede that I may have looked at the flying scenes and perceived them as being inaccurate when it may just be outside my piloting experience.
Keep in mind, “Ray”, that I describe myself as a “vintage plane nut.” I don’t have any more indepth knowledge of aviation, especially modern aviation, than the average interested layperson.