Hughes Aircraft

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Hughes Aircraft

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1936
resolution 1997
Seat Culver City , California , USA
management Howard Hughes , CEO
Number of employees 80,000 (1945)
Branch Aircraft construction

The founder Howard Hughes (around 1940)

Hughes Aircraft Company was one of the largest defense and aerospace companies in the United States. It was founded in 1936 by Howard Hughes . It was headquartered at Ballona Creek, in Culver City .

In the course of the 1970s and 1980s, parts of the company were repeatedly sold, so that today none of the divisions operates under the Hughes name. DreamWorks SKG film studios have now settled on the old company premises . In 1997, Hughes Electronics and Raytheon merged ; Hughes Space and Communications was acquired by Boeing in 2000 .

history

Hughes Aircraft was originally a subsidiary of the Hughes Tool Company . In 1935, Hughes built the Hughes Special , a pioneering aircraft with retractable landing gear , closed cockpit and sunken rivets on the outer skin , which was pioneering at the time in terms of streamlining . With the H-1, Hughes' Name became well known over the next few years when it set the absolute world speed record for land aircraft.

In 1936 Hughes Aircraft became self-employed. During the Second World War , HA designed and built some aircraft prototypes, including the famous Hughes H-4 Hercules , which is also known as the Spruce Goose because of its partially wooden construction . At the beginning of the war, HA only had 4 permanent employees; in the end it was over 80,000.

post war period

In addition to Douglas Aircraft , North American Aviation , Northrop , Lockheed Aircraft , Hughes Aircraft was one of the aviation companies that successfully gained a foothold in Southern California during and after World War II . In the meantime, Hughes Aircraft was the largest employer in the region.

After the war, Hughes fell out with parts of the US Senate . In the summer of 1947, some politicians expressed concern about Hughes' mismanagement of the Spruce Goose and the XF-11 project, which were largely funded by tax revenues. Even while the committee of inquiry was collecting evidence against Hughes Aircraft, Hughes was able to successfully test both prototypes and hand them over to the American military . The investigation was then closed and Hughes was acquitted despite constant criticism.

The Spruce Goose never took to the skies after its brief maiden flight and remained the largest-span aircraft ever until it was replaced by the Scaled Composites Stratolaunch on April 13, 2019 .

The Hughes Aerospace Group

In 1948 Hughes founded a new subsidiary, the Aerospace Group .

Two Hughes engineers, Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge , had some groundbreaking ideas in military aircraft construction at the time. The MA-1 system used radar signals to automatically position an aircraft in the correct position to fire missiles at another aircraft. At the same time, other teams were working with the newly formed US Air Force on air-to-air missiles, which led to the development of the AIM-4 Falcon (F-98). The combination of MA-1 and Falcon, later with a few upgrades , was the most important interceptor system in the United States until the 1980s.

Because of this successful start, the Aerospace Group quickly became very profitable and the most important part of the group. Since then, the Aerospace Group has produced radar and electro-optical systems, built the first functional lasers , designed aircraft and missile control technology and developed an ion propulsion system for spacecraft.

Ramo and Wooldridge separated from the Aerospace Group in 1953 due to business and personal differences with Howard Hughes . They founded the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation , which later together with Thompson Products , the TRW made - and one of the biggest competitors of the Aerospace Group was. In 1953, Howard Hughes established the Howard Hughes Medical Institute , a foundation to which he bequeathed the Hughes Aircraft.

Some famous people have close ties with Hughes Aircraft. Nobel Prize -carrier Richard Feynman , for example, held weekly seminars in the Hughes research departments. Murray Gell-Mann , also a Nobel Prize winner, shared an office with the future HA CEO Malcolm Currie. Greg Jarvis and Ronald McNair , two of the astronauts on the Challenger's final flight , worked for Hughes.

Hughes Space and Communications

Two working groups of Hughes Aerospace , the Hughes Space and Communications Group and the Hughes Space Systems Division , became offshoots in 1948 and finally operated in 1961 under the common name Hughes Space and Communications Company .

Together they built the first geosynchronous communication satellite, Syncom , in 1963 , which they followed up with the first geostationary weather satellite ATS-1 in 1966 . Also in 1966, their Surveyor landed on the moon . Hughes developed Pioneer Venus in 1978 , which first mapped Venus in detail , and the Galileo probe, which flew to Jupiter in the 1990s. Almost 40 percent of the satellites active in 2000 were built by Hughes Space and Communications .

Satellites

The model series will be continued by Boeing and will continue to run under Boeing's name (e.g. HS376 as Boeing 376).

Hughes Helicopters

In 1947, Hughes began manufacturing helicopters . Helicopter manufacturer Kellett sold its newest model to Hughes. The H-17 Sky Crane flew for the first time in October 1952. However, the model was not commercially successful. In 1955, the subsidiary Toolco Aircraft Division started and began developing light military helicopters. In May 1965 they were awarded the contract for an observation helicopter for the US Army , which led to the development of the OH-6 Cayuse - a helicopter that is still produced today under different names. In 1976 the Toolco Aircraft Division was renamed Hughes Helicopters . This is where the famous AH-64 Apache attack helicopter comes from , which won the Collier Trophy in 1983 .

Event history

  • 1932: Howard Hughes creates an aircraft division in the Hughes Tool Company
  • 1936: Hughes Aircraft becomes an independent company.
  • 1948: Hughes founds the Aerospace Group , which is structured as follows:
    • Hughes Space and Communications Group
    • Hughes Space Systems Division
  • 1953: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is established and Hughes Aircraft is added to the foundation's assets.
  • 1955: Hughes founds the helicopter manufacturer Toolco Aircraft Division
  • 1958: The Hughes Aircraft-produced Oscar-nominated short documentary Employees Only is released.
  • 1961: Hughes Space and Communications Company results from the merger of Hughes Space and Communications Group and Hughes Space Systems Division
  • 1972: Hughes sells the tool division of the Hughes Tool Company . The rest of the group remains in the Summa Corporation - Holding .
  • 1976: Toolco Aircraft becomes Hughes Helicopters
  • 1976: Howard Hughes dies at the age of 71 without leaving a will
  • 1984: Summa Corporation sells Hughes Helicopters to McDonnell Douglas for $ 500 million. The company is renamed McDonnell Douglas Helicopters .
  • 1985: The HHMI sells Hughes Aircraft to General Motors for $ 5 billion. The company is with the also to General Motors belonging Delco Electronics merged and Hughes Electronics renamed.

To Hughes Electronics include:

    • Hughes Aircraft
    • Delco Electronics
    • Hughes Space and Communications
    • Hughes Network Systems
    • since August 1992 General Dynamics Missile Systems.
  • 1994: Hughes Electronics introduces DirecTV .
  • 1995: Hughes Space and Communications becomes the world's largest manufacturer of commercial satellite systems.
  • 1995: Hughes Electronics purchases Magnavox Electronic Systems from the Carlyle Group
  • 1996: Hughes Electronics and PanAmSat merge their satellite businesses, but keep the PanAmSat name .
  • 1997: General Motors merges Hughes Electronics with Delphi Automotive Systems, which is also part of the General Motors Group . Delphi became independent in 1999.
  • 1997: Hughes Electronics (Hughes Aircraft and the anti-missile business) merge with Raytheon .
  • 2000: Hughes Space and Communications remained independent until 2000, but were then bought by Boeing and became Boeing Satellite Systems .
  • 2003: The remaining parts of Hughes Electronics (DirecTV, DirecTV Latin America, PanAmSat and Hughes Network Systems ) are bought by NewsCorp and renamed The DirecTV Group .
  • 2004 Newscorp sells PanAmSat to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR)