Howard Hughes. If you know the name at all, you probably think of a crazy man who lived in total seclusion, or maybe you know few bits of trivia. The name doesn’t come up much these days, which is a shame because he was a model for a lot of the way that tech tycoons operate now. Before Bill Gates, before Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, there was Howard Hughes. There was a time that his power and influence was everywhere, and the sad lessons of his life cast a shadow over others who came after him. When you look at a billionaire and assume they’re eccentric, it’s because of him.
The amazing achievements
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., was the driving force behind the largest wooden aircraft ever to fly, the biggest-budget movie of his day, and some well-appreciated engineering feats in the lingerie department. He was investigated as a pornographer and war profiteer, and he was one of the top celebrities of his day. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about him, check out the early 2000s film The Aviator. It’s a flawed film in many ways, but it’s an entertaining way to get the highlights of Hughes’ life.
He’s also, in some ways at least, the father of DIRECTV.
Howard Hughes died in 1976… how could he possibly be the father of DIRECTV?
Howard Hughes was impossibly rich, along the lines of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett today. He is rumored to have bought an entire hotel when he was told that the current management wouldn’t rent him a whole floor full of rooms, and that didn’t do much damage to his bank account. He had money in aircraft, in movies, and even in toolmaking. And that meant he needed to find a way to avoid paying a lot of taxes. After all, even in those days, mo’ money equated to mo’ problems.
Howard Hughes’ family made their fortune making tools. Hughes himself had two passions as a young man, and spent most of his family’s fortune pursuing them. The first was fast planes, and the second was making movies. Together those passions drove him to create the 1930 film Hell’s Angels. Featuring the world’s largest private air force, it was a sprawling epic with some of the most dangerous special effects ever done, even to this day.
How we got to satellite TV
In order to indulge his passions, Hughes created Hughes Aircraft. It’s the part of the Hughes empire that people are most familiar with. While Hughes Aircraft never grew to the size of Boeing, for example, the company held several speed records and produced one of the largest planes ever to fly, the Hercules.
One of his minor ventures, designed as a tax shelter was the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. At one point, Mr. Hughes transferred the assets of Hughes Aircraft to the institute, and after Mr. Hughes’ death an investigation took place leading Hughes Aircraft to be sold to General Motors.
GM reorganized Hughes and created divisions for satellite technology and network systems, which in turn led to the creation of a new subsidiary… DIRECTV. GM held on to its share in DIRECTV until 2003, effectively ending the company’s affiliation with Mr. Hughes’ legacy. Hughes itself continued making DIRECTV receivers up until that time as well. Manufacturing was spun off as GM divested itself of DIRECTV, although control of the design stays with DIRECTV to this day.
And … now you know. If you’re interested in upgrading your DIRECTV service, call the experts at Solid Signal at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below.
