1944 - Transportation

Transportation

A Lockheed Constellation flown by Howard Hughes sets a new speed record April 17 (see 1943). Hughes will develop TWA into Trans World Airways and control it until 1966, by which time he will have expanded his patrimony into a fortune of $1.5 billion and made TWA a transatlantic competitor of Pan American (see 1947).

Automaker Louis Renault dies at his native Paris October 24 at age 67 while awaiting trial on charges of having collaborated with the Germans.

A Federal Highway Act passed by Congress November 29 establishes a new U.S. National System of Interstate Highways. The arterial network of 40,000 miles is planned to reach 42 state capitals and to serve 182 of the 199 U.S. cities with populations above 50,000 (see 1955; 1956).