Well he owned the Company. He was very aggressive in getting contracts for his Aircraft and electronics. He had a hand in a lot of things. One of the interesting ones is Direct TV. That comes out of Huges Aircraft Sat division. Most of his companies are still around in one form or another. The 500 started out as the Light Scout Helicotper the Army was looking for , Bell came up with what will become the Bell 206, Hiller the FH-1100. The Army ended up with what became the 206 and the 500. Like a lot of things there were a lot of politics going on. LBJ had a huge stake in Bell helicopter at the time. The Army liked the OH-6, they still have them and are buying more of them. Bell improved the 206 and the latest vision is the OH-58D. Howard Huges was a very great man who saw the future better than anyone of his generation. A lot of things we take for granted today is because of some of the far reaching inovations he was able to put to pratical use. You can get 140 channels on Direct TV or around 29 dollars a month, and for a little more you can get 500 channels. Also Internet and phone and a bunch of other things. The casino's in Vegas are gone, along with Huges Air West and TWA. Air West morphed into South West Airlines. Its to bad that the Helicopter division is having troubles, but then again, so is bell and well Hiller is about gone.