Hughes Aircraft

[f.e.a.r]

Hi.
Dont seem to be able to find out much information on the connection between Howard Hughes and Hughes Aircraft, asin the Hughes Aircraft modules that are in most of our watches. Did Howard have a personal interest with Led watches? did he have any hands on experience or interest with the making of these modules? Was the modules made by Hughes Electronics Corporation? When did production start and when did it cease? I think you get the idea of the info Im looking for.
Regards..

[azimuth_pl]

a lot is mentioned here about the companies:
http://www.library.unlv.edu/hughes/pages/aircraft.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Aircraft

not a word about LED modules but why should they?
many key producers of electronics tried their chance in new developing market segments (National Semi., Fairchild, etc.) just for the money, not because of personal interest in watches. such companies also bought out other entities already in that particular segment to save on R&D.
Howard died in 1976 and at that time dozens of his companies and individual company departments were run autonomously so it's very likely that he only heard about Hughes LED modules from an annual report on revenues

[f.e.a.r]

Yeah your right, why would a multi billionaire eccentric recluse want or need to know about watch parts. On further research Ive come to the conclusion that Hughes himself is quite a read, more interesting than the modules. Amazing guy!

Thanks Azimuth for the input.

[Diginut]

Hughes, the man, is a very interesting bloke for sure.

I remember when he apparently died back in 76 becuase rumours were rife that he and Elvis were still shacked up in various hotel penthouses, and faked their deaths to be able to live at least a few more years without the media pressure !

The Hughes group of companies is absolutley vast, and I am sure making LED modules was similar to wondering if Bill gates knows what the birthday is of his lowest paid employee somewhere in the hundreds of companies he owns.

[mrcalc]

If you're looking for info on Hughes Aircraft's involvement in LED watches, take a look at the article on this site. Click on Reference > Articles and see the article at the bottom of the page. I wrote it and would be happy to answer any questions I can. I didn't work at Hughes at the time, but came on board in the 1980s. I obtained a bunch of info from people who used to work there and ended up buying a bunch of the old Hughes watch parts. Before I'm bombarded with requests, I sold off most of the modules - keeping some, but then sold most of what I kept. I only have a few left and I suspect they don't work.