Talk:Hughes Aircraft Company/Archives/2013

Medical stuff
What is the last para about medical stuff? Why would it be a conflict of interest, why is it his greatest legacy? Mat-C 21:03, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * This policy is actually more ethical than the drug companies, say, which create medicines, sell them to hospitals and other caregiving organizations, and also create academic papers and drug tests which certify that the medicines are efficacious. This is a conflict of interest, because there are no checks and balances. Contrast this to the Medical Institute, which funds medical researchers. When Hughes Aircraft Company existed, it could easily have built X-ray machines, MR machines, cancer detectors, etc. but chose not to, to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
 * But the Medical Institute, instead, funds researchers, quite generously. Now suppose one of the researchers found the secret of curing cancer, or for immortality and unbounded good health with no senescence. The public would be beating down the doors with orders for a product XYZ sold by any company which promised unbounded good health with no senescence, and such a company, if it were owned by the Medical Institute, would have a conflict of interest with a Medical Institute which published a statement that XYZ produces unbounded good health with no senescence.
 * The Medical Institute may have a license agreement with the researchers, much like the license that Stanford has with Google. I do not know if the researchers have such agreements with the Medical Institute.
 * Of course, it would be the happy duty and job of a researcher who had discovered the secret of immortality, to publish those findings, and the Medical Institute would then share in the glory of such a scientific discovery. Ancheta Wis 21:40, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I am disputing the claim that the Hughes Culver City was in Westchester. Westchester was indeed part of the large residential area for the employees of Hughes Culver City, as was Inglewood, the South Bay and Westside. It may be that since the postal address of the Company, Centinela and Teale, Culver City, Calif had the name of Culver City in the address, (no street number during the World War II days), and that may well be how that site for Hughes Aircraft became known. This large swath of real estate, extending from the Centinela valley to the beach now known as Playa del Rey was not part of the City of Los Angeles at that time, and was the basis for Hughes' billion dollar fortune. At the time that Hughes was building his Racer, this area was much less densely populated, where in fact farming was still occurring. Westchester now refers to the residential area on the hills south of the wetland that Hughes used for his airstrip. After Hughes' death, a large headquarters building was constructed, during the GM days, which now belongs to Loyola Marymount. I concede that that HQ building can be considered to be Westchester, but not the wetlands or floodplain. There were multiple sites for Hughes Aircraft:


 * Corporate Offices: Culver City, CA
 * Electro-Optical & Data Systems Group Divisions:
 * Electro-Optical Engineering.....El Segundo, CA
 * Manufacturing...................El Segundo, CA
 * Space Sensors...................El Segundo, CA
 * Strategic Systems...............El Segundo, CA
 * Tactical Systems................El Segundo, CA
 * Technology Support..............El Segundo, CA


 * Ground Systems Group Divisions:
 * Communications & Radar..........Fullerton, CA
 * Data Processing Products........Fullerton, CA
 * Engineering Services & Support..Fullerton, CA
 * Manufacturing...................Fullerton, CA
 * Software Engineering............Fullerton, CA
 * Systems.........................Fullerton, CA


 * Industrial Electronics Group Divisions:
 * Connecting Devices..............Irvine, in Aug. 92 this division was sold to HP
 * Electron Dynamics...............Torrance, CA
 * Industrial Products.............Carlsbad, CA - merged with Microelectronic Systems to form Technology Products Division and was sold in Sept. 1995
 * Microelectronic Systems.........Irvine/Rancho Santa Margarita, in Aug. 92 went to Carlsbad, CA - merged with Industrial Products to form Technology Products Division
 * Solid State Products............Newport Beach, CA
 * Microelectronic Circuits........Newport Beach, CA


 * Missile Systems Group Divisions:
 * AMRAAM..........................Canoga Park, CA
 * Maverick Division...............Canoga Park, CA
 * Missile Development.............Canoga Park, CA
 * Roland..........................Canoga Park, CA
 * Systems.........................Canoga Park, CA
 * Manufacturing...................Tucson, AZ


 * Radar Systems Group Divisions:
 * Advanced Programs...............El Segundo, CA
 * Aeronautical Operations.........Van Nuys, CA
 * Engineering.....................El Segundo, CA
 * Manufacturing...................El Segundo, CA
 * Phoenix Systems.................El Segundo, CA


 * Space & Communications Group Divisions:
 * Commercial Systems..............El Segundo, CA
 * Defense Systems.................El Segundo, CA
 * NASA Systems....................El Segundo, CA
 * Product Operations..............El Segundo, CA
 * Satellite Ground Equipment......El Segundo, CA
 * Technology......................El Segundo, CA


 * Support Systems Divisions:
 * Field Service & Support.........Long Beach, CA
 * Test & Training Systems.........Long Beach, CA


 * Research Laboratories Departments:
 * Chemical Physics................Malibu, CA
 * Electron Device Physics.........Malibu, CA
 * Exploratory Studies.............Malibu, CA
 * High Voltage Technology.........Malibu, CA
 * Ion Physics.....................Malibu, CA
 * Optical Circuits................Malibu, CA
 * Optical Physics.................Malibu, CA


 * International:
 * Headquaters.....................Culver City, CA

Subsidiaries Mexico..........................Mexicali, Mexico Service Company.................Culver City, CA International...................Culver City, CA Services........................El Segundo, CA International...................El Segundo, CA
 * Major Operating Subsidiaries & Affiliates:
 * AZ Engineering Co...............Santa Ana, CA
 * Ensambladores Electronicos de
 * Hughes Aircraft International
 * Hughes Aircraft Systems
 * Hughes Communication Carrier
 * Hughes Communication Services...El Segundo, CA
 * Hughes Communications...........El Segundo, CA
 * Hughes Communications
 * Hughes Microelectronics.........Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
 * Santa Barbara Research Center...Goleta, CA
 * Spectrolab......................Sylmar, CA

Affiliates As you can see, Westchester was not in the list. Ancheta Wis 00:57, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * COMCO Electronics Corp..........Culver City, CA
 * Elektronik-Und Luftfahrtgerate
 * GMbH............................Bonn, Germany
 * Eltro GmbH......................Heidelberg, Germany
 * Eutronic........................Brussels, Belgium
 * HBH Company.....................Washington, D.C.
 * Nippon Aviotronics Co...........Tokyo, Japan
 * UKADGE Systems..................London, England

Note
Note 1: This Airport Area was next to the site for Los Angeles International Airport, which is next to Westchester, physically, on Century Boulevard.

Toolco Aircraft
No such company ever existed. It was Hughes Tool Co. Aircraft Division. And there may or may not have been a colon in between "Co." and "Aircraft".

I've found a reference for the Hughes Tool Co. and its various incarnations at Boeing's site under history. (Born2flie 13:54, 16 July 2006 (UTC))- Added by BillCJ 06:03, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * 1953, Hughes created the Hughes Medical Institute and gave the Hughes Aircraft Co. as its sole asset.
 * 1955, Hughes separated the helicopter unit out of the Aircraft Co. and joined it to Hughes Tool Co. as the Aircraft Division. It was during this time that the OH-6 was developed and produced.
 * 1972, the Aircraft Division was reformed as the helicopter division of the Summa Corp. when Hughes sold the Hughes Tool Co.
 * 1981, it became Hughes Helicopters Inc.
 * 1984, Hughes Helicopters Inc. became a part of the McDonnel Douglass Corporation.
 * 1985, it was renamed McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. and then later that year, it was renamed again to McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Hello,

I have a quick question regarding "medical applications" this is the following info.

Hughes' Legacy

The amazing range of science and technology spanned by the workers at Hughes Aircraft never included medical applications, because the company was a property of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which exists to this day. This restriction was imposed to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Ironically, medical applications may well become Hughes' greatest legacy.

How come since Hughes Aircraft Company was owned by HHMI since they did aerospace/defense electronics/military applications, how come they didn't do medical applications for the Owner, HHMI. I think founder Howard Hughes would have appericated that - I think he is rolling in his grave realizing that the new Board of Trustees of the HHMI sold HAC to GM, when HHMI could have benefited from HAC's technology and incorporated medical applications a bonous to HAC.

Its funny but in July of 1990 Hughes Aircraft and Delco Electronics subsidiaries of General Motors Corporation formed a jointed subsidiary called H.E. Microwave to produce electronics for automotive and military applications. If Hughes Aircraft could do it for GM, they could have done it for HHMI.

Anthonygracian 06:58, 7 April 2007 (UTC) Anthony Gracian

Hughes Aircraft WWII contributions Hello, I am interested in contacting any former employees/directors of Hughes Aircraft to verify something that I believe was a substantial contribution to the WWII victory that never seems to be mentioned in any publications regarding Howard Hughes. ```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Carocage (talk • contribs) 20:03, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Old logo
Does anyone have a picture of the old logo? It would be good for the article. Ideally it would be on the back of a flight suit with the Hughes logo, 1930s to 1960s would be perfect. --Ancheta Wis (talk) 13:10, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
 * CDW1952, Thank you for putting up the HAC logo used during the Howard Hughes era. --Ancheta Wis (talk) 02:53, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Ballona creek
When HAC was started it had a Culver City (CC) Postal address as the nearest location, but since it was built on farmland near CC it could be misconstrued that the current municipality of CC contains it. Since Ballona Creek is a noticeable geographic feature (being at one time the outlet of the Los Angeles River to the Pacific) it is actually helpful to know that HAC-CC was next to the creek leading to the ocean, and that the flight line pointed westward to the Pacific. --Ancheta Wis (talk) 19:32, 5 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I removed it since it seems to be a point of contention. What you've mentioned is only helpful to people familiar with the geography of the area, which probably does not include the majority of readers, who are not from the US, much less LA. The minutia of local geography is not relavant here, as the article is about a company, not a location. In general, WP uses the publicly stated address, which is usually the postal address. And since most sources state Culver City, please stop changing that too. Thanks. - BillCJ (talk) 21:45, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Galileo Probe picture
The Galileo Spacecraft were actually two spacecraft: the mothership Galileo Orbiter and the piggyback Galileo Probe. The former was built in-house by the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; the latter was built by Hughes. The accompanying photograph depicts mainly the non-Hughes Orbiter. Aldo L (talk) 07:38, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Issues with the timeline
There appears to be some odd inconsitencies with the timeline where things are mentioned as having been introduced a year or two after they're mentioned in the timeline. For example, we have two companies mentioned as being part of a group in 1985. 1985: The HHMI sold Hughes Aircraft to General Motors for $5.2 billion. This was merged with GM's Delco Electronics to form Hughes Electronics. This group then consisted of: ... DirecTV ... Hughes Network Systems

Then they seem to be created at a later date.

"1987: Hughes Aircraft Company acquires M/A-COM Telecommunications, to form Hughes Network Systems"

So, prior to 1987 it was some kind of unformed company?

"1994: Hughes Electronics introduces DirecTV"

So it was created in a merger and then introduced 9 years later?

Can someone straighten this out? StarkRG (talk) 01:00, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

how did Hughes Aircraft start?
the film "The Aviator" implies that Hughes was born out of the making of "Hell's Angels." it implies that Hughes' obsession with filming ever faster planes for film lead him, it seems, to tinker with one of the planes, although he does decide to knock one set of the wings off the biplane that he is tinkering with and so make a monoplane. i realize that it's just a movie, but the article's history section begins with Hughes Aircraft during World War Two rather than with its birth. the movie says that Hughes incorporated Hughes Aircraft in California in the late 1920s. my question is, what was the origin of Hughes Aircraft? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.127.233.4 (talk) 17:16, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Hughes Aircraft Company
The title of the article just has "Hughes Aircraft" whereas the company was usually referred to as "Hughes Aircraft Company." Is there a good reason why the title should not include the word "Company?"LPIRE (talk) 18:31, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Company founding location
The article claims that Hughes Aircraft Company was founded in Culver City in 1932. It was not. It was founded in Glendale CA in 1932. Should the article be corrected with the source cited?LPIRE (talk) 18:34, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * New information is always welcome. What airfield did Howard Hughes use in Glendale? He must have had staff; how many? --Ancheta Wis   (talk  &#124; contribs) 19:55, 21 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Hughes leased part of a hangar at Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, CA. The number of employees at the time is unknown but is believed to be rather small, probably less than ten. LPIRE (talk) 19:08, 26 November 2012 (UTC)
 * LPIRE, Thank you for the ref to   grand central air terminal. --Ancheta Wis    (talk  &#124; contribs) 19:39, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Some Concerns

The present Hughes Aircraft Company Wikipedia article suffers problems of accuracy, relevancy and continuity. I believe the article was not deliberately intended to have these issues. I suspect they are the result of the Wiki process so no one person is at fault. However, the present article could be greatly improved by some judicious editing. Here are some examples of needed changes.

After WWII Hughes Aircraft no longer was much of a true aircraft company apart from helicopters and that product line was soon moved back to Hughes Tool Company when it became increasingly obvious that the Company’s future was in electronics. Apart from small helicopters, Hughes Aircraft made only five complete, fly-able aircraft: the justly famous H-1 Racer, the deeply flawed largely wooden D-2 recon. fighter prototype, the huge but ill-timed HK-1 flying boat, the similarly ill-timed XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft and the unsuccessful XH-17 Flying Crane. None of these aircraft ever made a profit and the maximum production of any was two (XF-11).

There is a notation that renowned scientists had Hughes Aircraft connections and Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann are cited. There are, in fact, many more scientists and engineers and many senior politicians, military leaders and senior foreign representatives with Hughes Aircraft contacts. Few, if any, had any significant effect on Hughes Aircraft Company so one is left wondering why this citation is included. It probably should be deleted because a comprehensive listing of renowned personalities having contact with the Company would fill volumes.

When General Motors had to sell assets to cover its unfunded pension liability it divided the entirety of Hughes Electronics into three large business groups and sold them individually. The defense electronics portion was sold to Raytheon Corporation in 1997 for $9.3B; the spacecraft (communications satellites) business was sold to Boeing Corporation in 2000 for $3.3B and DirecTV was sold to News Corporation in 2003 for $6.6B. The present article needs to be simplified and corrected.

Comments are solicited. LPIRE (talk) 01:28, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Hughes Aircraft Company Article Rewrite
Hughes Aircraft Company Article Rewrite Plan

As indicated in my comments on the Hughes Aircraft Company Talk page of a month ago, the present Hughes Aircraft Company Wikipedia article suffers problems of focus, accuracy, relevancy and continuity. Clearly the article was not deliberately intended to have these issues, they are the natural result of the Wiki process; no one person’s contribution is at fault. However, the present article could be greatly improved by some judicious editing.

A draft re-write text of the entire article may be found at this link: . This draft is offered for consideration and constructive comments are welcome. References will be added to the next text revision; some of these will be those for the existing article but new references will be added. Likewise for illustrations, links and categories. My objective is to fine tune the complete article to satisfy Wikipedia standards before replacing the existing article. The whole update process is expected to take a few months.

LPIRE (talk) 19:16, 7 March 2013 (UTC)
 * HAC was more than an aircraft company; it advanced the fields of radar, electro-optics, lasers, ion implantation and IC manufacture, ion thrusters for spacecraft, communications satellites, cable tv, weapon systems, missiles ... --Ancheta Wis   (talk  &#124; contribs) 11:30, 19 July 2013 (UTC)