Page 6 - TNT Dec 2017

Jay Selman Photo (www.jaybirdaviationphotos.com)
HoF ward
or the first time since it had arrived at Oshkosh AirVenture 2017, the big blue-and-silver beauty was not surround by throngs of gawkers. Only curious stragglers, captivated by the machine, wondered aloud what it was. Upon learning it was a Howard 500, most assumed that Howard Hughes,
Hughes Aircraft, or the Howard Aircraft Company (builders of the single-engine Howard DGA) were involved. None were, though its elegance easily conjures up such romanticized imagery.
Mechanical Artistry
The Art Deco period ended as WWII began, but Dee Howard seems to have been a fan of the era’s unmistakable panache. The decommissioned military aircraft he and his famed mechanic Ed Swearingen built ushered in upscale executive transportation. Their ever-evolving series of conversions, focusing mainly on the Lockheed Lodestar and Ventura models, seemed to ooze art deco styling. Howard Aero Corporation’s swan song was a design Howard hoped could compete while retaining unparalleled luxury.
Through obsessive persistence, it became the first pressurized, cabin-class, bizliner with transcontinental range. Sadly, even Mr. Howard admitted, it came a decade too late. The design was finalized in 1958 and conversions of PV-1/B-34 Ventura airframes began in 1959, concurrent with the process to certify the Howard 500 as an independent type. The HW-500 was not a conversion in the truest sense. Design and engineering changes imposed upon donor airframes were so extensive that the final product was a whole new aircraft, including unique flight characteristics, systems, performance and operational parameters.
Fuselages were built new, incorporating a 48-inch stretch and major structural changes necessary for pressurization. Huge double-pane windows, a three-panel windshield, a vault-like cabin door, and a fully enclosed aft lavatory were designed in. Under the floor, two massive baggage areas resided where the Ventura’s bomb bays had been. The typical 12-passenger corporate configuration included
4 • TWIN & TURBINE
December 2017