What ever happened to Howard Hughes aviation plants?
Asked by
silky1 (
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November 20th, 2010
Are they still in existence and if so who owns them?
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4 Answers
Well, he bought a majority of TWA, but then was forced to sell his shares of TWA by the US government. He then, in the 1970s he bought a new, smaller airline, Air West and renamed it Hughes West.
Wiki pretty much tells the rest of the story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Aircraft
The Medical Center is still going, but they sold all interest in the aircraft company.
It is now owned by Raytheon.
Responding to Answer #1 – Hughes was NOT forced to sell his shares of TWA. He sold at what turned out to be the highest point ever reached by TWA stock. He was involved in a law suit with TWA’s financiers, but the government had nothing to do with it. Air West was re-named Hughes Air West.
Answer #2 – I don’t know which plant belongs to Raytheon (unless it’s perhaps the plant out in the San Fernando Valley)
Answer #3: I have seen ads indicating that the hangar built to produce the ‘Flying Boat is for sale. It has been used as a movie sound stage for several Hollywood productions. The other buildings in Culver City have pretty much been torn down. They were used for the development and production of helicopters – including the Apache – but the helicopter division was moved to a new plant in Mesa, Arizona, and later sold to McDonald Douglas.
As for how the Flying Boat was moved from Culver City to Long Beach, there are a number of web sites with photos showing the Flying Boat being moved in pieces, after which it was assembled in Long Beach. If you read the book “Howard Hughes” published by Norton & Company all these questions will be answered. I was one of Hughes’ personal secretaries beginning in 1957 and worked for his companies until 1989. Pal B. Winn
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