Jack Real, 90; Aviation Pioneer Advised Hughes

Jack Real, a pioneer aviation engineer and advisor to Howard Hughes who helped develop helicopters for Lockheed, Hughes Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas, has died. He was 90.

Real died Sept. 6 of heart failure at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, said Betty O’Connor, his longtime companion. She said he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and had been in nursing homes or hospitals since a fall nearly a year ago.

The design engineer worked for what is now Lockheed Martin Corp. for more than 30 years, rising to vice president, and later served as president of both Hughes Helicopter Co. and McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.

“He was what you called ‘the Lockheed legend,’ ” said O’Connor, a former executive administrative assistant at Lockheed. “He was known around the world.”

In a statement, Nissen Davis, president of the Southern California Aeronautic Assn., said that Real’s contributions and innovative designs helped pave the way for many aerospace developments. “He was a giant in our industry and will surely be missed,” Davis said.

Real received the organization’s Howard Hughes Memorial Award in 1990.

In 2003, Real published “The Asylum of Howard Hughes,” written with the help of Bill Yenne, about his long friendship with the reclusive aviator.

“Jack Real was Howard Hughes’ last best friend,” William Rice Lummis, Hughes’ cousin and the administrator of his estate, wrote in the book’s foreword.

In 1993, Real helped relocate Hughes’ legendary Spruce Goose from Long Beach to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Ore. Real served as president of the museum from 1995 to 2001, overseeing its construction and the reassembly and restoration of Hughes’ fabled flying boat. At the time of his death, Real was chairman of the board emeritus of the museum.

Real traveled with Hughes during the legendary aviator’s final years. It was Real who arranged the 1976 flight that took the severely ill 70-year-old Hughes from where he was staying in Mexico to a Houston hospital. Hughes died en route.

The two men met when Real was working for Lockheed. Real subsequently became a personal aviation advisor to the entrepreneur from 1957 until Hughes’ death.

Real, who became senior vice president of aviation for the Hughes Tool Co. in 1971, stayed on with Hughes’ Summa Corp. as Hughes’ estate took over after he died.

In 1979, Real assumed the presidency of the ailing Hughes Helicopter Co., which he turned around financially and where he guided the development of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

In 1983, under Real’s leadership, the company shared the Robert J. Collier trophy with Secretary of the Army Jack Marsh. The award is the nation’s highest honor for aeronautics achievement.

Real also helped arrange the sale of Hughes Helicopters to McDonnell Douglas Corp. in 1984 and stayed on as president of McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. until his retirement in 1986.

“Jack Real is a true aviation pioneer, and he has made many outstanding contributions to the success of both McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. and the helicopter industry,” Sanford N. McDonnell, chairman and chief executive of McDonnell Douglas Corp., said when Real’s retirement was announced.

Born in Baraga, Mich., on May 31, 1915, Real earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan College of Mining and Technology (now Michigan Technological University) in 1937. He later took business courses at USC.

He went to work as a project engineer for Lockheed Aircraft Co. and remained until joining Hughes’ firm in 1971. By 1940 Real was senior design engineer on the Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar aircraft. He helped design, develop and test several other Lockheed models, including the B-14 Hudson Bomber and the Cheyenne combat helicopter.

During World War II, Lockheed lent Real to Pan American Airways as a flight engineer on South American and African routes. After the war he worked for many years with aviation pioneer Kelly Johnson at Lockheed’s experimental “Skunk Works,” then located in Burbank, and helped develop such craft as the SR-71 Blackbird.

In 1965 Real was named Lockheed vice president and general manager for the Cheyenne helicopter project; by 1968 he was put in charge of all Lockheed rotary aircraft.

Among the boards on which he served were the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and the Boy Scouts of America, which gave him its Americanism Award. He was named an elder statesman of aviation by the National Aeronautical Assn. in 1989.

In addition to O’Connor, Real is survived by his son, Daniel; his daughter, Patricia Real Konersmann; and six grandchildren. His wife of 62 years, Janeth, died in 1994. The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to Catholic Charities USA or to the 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, P.O. Box 25168, Alexandria, VA 22313-9788.