Iron City - The Skywarriors have been civil operated for trials
work with a variety of U.S Government contractors. Amongst these were Hughes who started operating the type in the early 1960's. When the Navy retired their last surviving machines in 1991 they were distributed to a quartet of companies including Hughes. Subsequent to this Raytheon has acquired all the remaining machines (fourteen on the U.S civil register) although it's thought that they are not all still airworthy
Clearly Howard Hughes was in control of the company during the 1960's at least so he does have a direct connection with the type.