Overview
The real story of Howard Hughes, aviator, innovative and visionary inventor and designer, has not heretofore been told. It is easy to see why. While he lived, it was difficult to write the biography of a billionaire who adamantly opposed the publication of anything about him. Would-be biographers were persuaded or forced to desist. Some were offered lucrative positions and disappeared into the ranks of the Hughes organizations never to be heard from again. Hughes employees were forbidden to talk about their boss.In 1965, Hughes concocted a new weapon to combat his would-be biographers -- Rosemont Enterprises, Inc., to whom he granted the exclusive right to use (publish, write, etc.) the name, personality, likeness, biography, life story, and incidents relating thereto of Howard R. Hughes.
Even after Random House pulled the fangs of Rosemont in a hard-fought and celebrated court case, and even after Hughes's death, vestiges of the old security barriers remained. Being close mouthed had become a habit in the Hughes organizations.
In Howard Hughes and His Flying Boat, for the first time, large numbers of former Hughes employees and close associates talk about their famous boss. Here are behind-the-scenes stories that lift the veils of secrecy and controversy that have surrounded Hughes and his works during his lifetime.
This is more than the story of the world's largest airplane. It is the story of Hughes the aviator and designer of unusual airplanes during a fascinating era in aviation history. It is the story of his life before he became the wheeler-dealer of Las Vegas, of the airplane crashes that changed the course of his life, of the mysterious "disappearance" for nine months, and of his struggle to vindicate himself and his works during the Senate investigation of his wartime contracts.
In addition to the first-hand reminiscences of many who knew and worked for Howard Hughes, this book is based on previously unpublished documentary material.
Howard Hughes and His Flying Boat, as originally published by Aero Publishers under ISBN 8168-0-6456-X, won the Aviation/Space Writers Association award as the best nonfiction aviation book of the year and went through six printings.
In 1993, the Hughes Flying Boat (better known as the "Spruce Goose") was moved from its display site alongside the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California to a new nest at Evergreen Aviation headquarters in McMinneville, Oregon. As a result, the Long Beach Museum book outlet closed and the then publisher of Howard HUGHES and His Flying Boat, TAB/McGraw Hill, decided not to go for a seventh printing even though the book had sold out worldwide.
Now, in 1999, Evergreen Aviation is building the world-class AirVenture Museum featuring the Hughes Flying Boat and a host of war birds. Jack Real, a former close associate of Howard Hughes, now president of the Evergreen AirVenture Museum, has written a new forward for the book, and the author has written an additional final chapter concerning Evergreen Aviation's role. The new ISBN is 0-9663175-0-5.