19 Facts About Hughes Aircraft

Hughes Aircraft was known for producing, among other products, the Hughes H-4 Hercules Spruce Goose aircraft, the atmospheric entry probe carried by the Galileo spacecraft, and the AIM-4 Falcon guided missile.

Hughes Aircraft was founded to construct Hughes' H-1 Racer world speed record aircraft, and it later modified aircraft for his transcontinental and global circumnavigation speed record flights.

Hughes Aircraft relocated to Culver City, California, in 1940 and began manufacturing aircraft parts as a subcontractor.

The U S military consequently hesitated to award new aircraft contracts to Hughes Aircraft, prompting new management installed in the late 1940s to instead pursue contracts for fire-control systems and guided missiles, which were then new technologies.

Hughes Aircraft soon became a highly profitable industry leader in these fields.

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Hughes Aircraft was one of many aerospace and defense companies which flourished in Southern California during and after World War II and was at one time the largest employer in the area.

In 1948 Hughes Aircraft created a new division of the company, the Aerospace Group.

Ramo and Wooldridge, having failed to reach an agreement with Howard Hughes Aircraft regarding management problems, resigned in September 1953 and founded the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, later to join Thompson Products to form the Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge based in Canoga Park, with Hughes Aircraft leasing space for nuclear research programs .

Hughes Aircraft became TRW in 1965, another aerospace company and a major competitor to Hughes Aircraft.

Hughes Aircraft developed radar systems, electro-optical systems, the first working laser, aircraft computer systems, missile systems, ion-propulsion engines, and many other advanced technologies.

Hughes Aircraft built Pioneer Venus in 1978, which performed the first extensive radar mapping of Venus, and the Galileo probe that flew to Jupiter in the 1990s.

Hughes Aircraft built nearly 40 percent of commercial satellites in service worldwide in 2000.

Hughes Aircraft left no will and following his death in 1976 there were numerous claims to his estate.

In 1994 Hughes Aircraft Electronics introduced DirecTV, the world's first high-powered DBS service.

In 1995, Hughes Aircraft sold its Technology Products Division to an investor group led by Citicorp and incorporated the division as Palomar Technologies.

In 2003 the remaining parts of Hughes Aircraft Electronics were purchased by News Corporation from GM and renamed The DirecTV Group.

Wide range of science and technology developed by Hughes Aircraft never included medical applications because the company was owned by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute .

Money provided to HHMI by Hughes Aircraft led to major improvements in genetics and cancer research.

City of Fullerton, California, named Hughes Aircraft Drive after the site that the company formerly occupied before 1997.