Howard Hughes' Hughes Aircraft Company was co-located with Hughes Tool Company on an aircraft landing strip next to Ballona Creek, in Culver City, near the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. Hughes Aircraft, Douglas Aircraft, North American Aviation, Northrop, Lockheed Aircraft were among the complex of companies in the aerospace industry which flourished in Southern California during and after World War II. At one time, Hughes was the largest employer in Southern California. Divisions of the company were sold off one-by-one during the 1970s and 80s, and today most of the companies no longer exist under the Hughes name. The grounds of the old Hughes companies are currently occupied by SKG Dreamworks, a movie company.
Hughes Aircraft was first set up as a subsidiary of Hughes Tool Company, then known as Toolco. In 1935 Hughes built the H-1 Racer, which included every streamlining concept then known, including retractable landing gear, a fully enclosed cockpit, and the first use of recessed rivets. The H-1 captured a number of speed records during the next few years, and made Hughes a household name.
In 1936 Hughes Aircraft was formed as a separate company. During World War II the company designed and built several prototype aircraft including the famous Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known to the world as the Spruce Goose. However the plant was used primarily as a branch plant for the construction of other company's designs. At the start of the war Hughes Aircraft had only four full-time employees, by the end it was 80,000.
After the war, Hughes ran afoul of the US Senate. By the summer of 1947, certain politicians had become concerned about Hughes' mismanagement of the Spruce Goose and the XF-11 photoreconnaissance plane project. They formed a special committee to investigate Hughes, but when he successfully tested both planes and then turned them over to the military, they no longer had a target to attack. Despite a highly critical committee report, Hughes was cleared.
- According to an old-timer at Hughes, when the Spruce Goose flying boat was flight-tested, it was filled with beach balls instead of the traditional ping-pong balls used when testing most sea planess. Every available beach ball in Los Angeles was purchased for the flight test. After the flight test, the beach balls were handed out to the spectators. In retrospect, this probably shows that Hughes did not intend to fly the aircraft again.
- Ramo and Wooldridge later joined with Thompson to form TRW, Inc, another aerospace company. TRW Automotive and TRW Credit are among the successor companies.
- Nobel Laureates R.P. Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann had Hughes connections; Feynman would hold weekly seminars at Hughes Research Laboratories; Gell-Mann shared an office with Malcom Currie, later a Group Executive at Hughes.
- Two of the astronauts on Space Shuttle Challenger, January 28,1986 were Hughes alumni: Greg Jarvis and Ronald McNair.
- The Tool Company's helicopter test pilots routinely performed 'loop the loop' maneuvers on the flight line in Culver City, with the OH-6A light helicopters[1]. As the helicopter flew upward in the 'loop', the pilot would simultaneously roll it, to re-orient the main rotor upward, at the top of the 'loop'.