Jack Real, long-time friend and confidant of Howard Hughes
"I have read thirteen books regarding Howard Hughes, but of them all Howard Hughes and His Flying Boat by Charles Barton handles the flying boat story the best of all."


Jerry Hannifin, former Aviation & Space Editor, TIME, Inc.
"So much bilge has been written about him and his life in aviation that it was literally with relief and great pleasure that I read your work. It is an outstanding contribution ... "


Charles E. "Gene" Blandford, former Hughes Aircraft Flight Test Engineer
"Absolutely outstanding ... You have captured and presented a better image of the Old Man than any other I have read"


Book Description
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 Flyng 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 his 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.

Was Hughes really a brilliant designer and builder of airplanes or did he just have the money to hire others who were? What kind of a pilot was he, really? These are the kinds of questions answered in Howard Hughes And His Flying Boat.


From the Publisher
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 1998, 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. This new and revised 1998 edition of HOWARD HUGHES AND HIS FLYING BOAT is now available.


From the Author
When Popular Mechanics editor John Linkletter first wrote to me that he had long wanted to publish an article on the Hughes flying boat (published as "Spruce Goose: Pterodactyl of World War II" in November, 1977) the U.S. Navy was actively considering a full flight test program for the 35-year-old airplane. At the start of my research, the Office of the Chief of Naval Information set up an interview with Rear Admiral Carl Seiberlich, then heading the effort to explore possible uses for the flying boat. Through Seiberlich I contacted Hughes's Chief Engineer, Rea E. Hopper, and obtained the crew list for that one-and-only flight of the giant boat.

The crew list was a major breakthrough. The men named on the list had worked for Hughes for many years and had friends who had played various roles in developments at Hughes Aircraft. Some of these friends had flown as flight engineer/mechanics with Hughes. Contacts snowballed.

Because I was a former naval aviator with flying boat experience, the Hughesmen talked more readily than they would have to a journalist without an aviation background. In this way previous walls of secrecy were breached and a treasure trove of information became available.

Other breakthroughs were the discovery of a Hughes Flying Boat file in the records of the War Production Board in the National Archives; a list provided by NASA of former National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics employees who had participated in the design and testing of the flying boat at the Langley Research Center; transcripts of taped interviews with Sherman Fairchild concerning his association with Howard Hughes made available by Theron Rinehart of Fairchild Industries; the assistance of Hughes's Chief of Aerodynamics Carl Babberger who in turn put me in touch with other key engineers; and the cooperation and assistance of Hughes's long-time friend and associate, Glen Odekirk, of Hughes's Flight Test Engineer Gene Blandford, and of all the others who so generously gave of their time in support of this project.

Thus, as a result of fortunate timing, favorable circumstances, and much foot-slogging research, this book is based on first hand accounts of many who knew and worked for Hughes and on previously unpublished documentary material.

The manuscript for Howard Hughes And His Flying Boat has been reviewed for accuracy by Nadine Henley Marshall, the personal secretary to Howard Hughes who rose to become a high-level Summa executive; by Carl Babberger, Hughes's Chief of Aerodynamics; by David Van Storm, long-time Hughes flight engineer/mechanic; by Perry Lieber, Consultant for the Summa Corporation; and by Edward West, Jr., former Hughes F-11 Project Engineer. The responsibility for the book's contents remains that of the author.


About the Author
Charles Barton earned his first flight time by passing our handbills for a visiting barnstormer in the 1930's, built and flew a primary glider, and in 1941 earned a private pilot license flying Taylorcraft and Piper Cubs on floats from Seattle's Lake Union while an engineering student at the University of Washington.

During World War II, Barton flew PBY Catalina flying boats and Lockheed PV-1 and PV-2 patrol bombers. After the war, he graduated in Chinese studies from Stanford University with plans for a dual career of flying for China National Aviation Corporation and writing about things Chinese -- plans that were changed by the Communist take-over on the mainland.

During his subsequent career in the Navy, Barton was Naval Chief Pilot for the Pacific Division of the Military Air Transport Service, graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School of the General Line in Monterey and Naval Intelligence and Chinese Language Schools in Washington, served two years as Assistant Naval Attache in Singapore and Malaya, commanded Airborne Early Warning Squadron ONE (VW-1), the Navy's "Typhoon Trackers" on Guam Island, and was Naval Attache Bangkok and Vientiane for four years before becoming Deputy Chief, Eastern Area, Defense Intelligence Agency.

Since retiring from the Navy and graduating with an MA in International Political Affairs from George Washington University, Captain Barton has been a free-lance writer. He is the co-author with Tex Johnston of Tex Johnston, Jet-Age Test Pilot published by Smithsonian Press.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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.

SYNOPSIS

Was he genius or madman? Brilliant designer, or "brain- picker?" Superlative pilot, or undisciplined, casual, and accident prone? Why didn't he fly the "Spruce Goose" again?

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Absolutely outstanding ... You have captured and presented a better image of the Old Man than any other I have read. ("Gene" Blandford, former Hughes Aircraft Flight Test Engineer) — Gene Blandford

This is "the definitive book on Hughes and his airplanes." (Carl Babberger, former Hughes Aircraft Chief of Aerodynamics) — Carl Babberger

I have read thirteen books regarding Howard Hughes, but of them all Howard Hughes and His Flying Boat by Charles Barton handles the flying boat story the best of all. (Jack Real, long-time friend and confidant of Howard Hughes) — Jack Real