The following info came to me directly from Dee Howard himself.
The Howard 500 was a hand built airplane designed by Dee Unger Howard. In 1949 Dee left Slick Aviation and chased after a dream to convert surplus military aircraft to corporate use and he began Howard Aero. His lead mechanic was Bulmaro Alarcon, his brother-in-law, was an aid to the president of Mexico. Bulmaro went to work for Dee in '55 a field rep and shop manager he worked for Dee for almost 40 yrs as he went on to work for the Dee Howard Corp. later. commissioned to find a plane to fly a wealthy business man from Mexico to NYC with non-stop. (From Mexico City). He used the inexpensive PV-1 as his first platform and found it had potential, but too limited in speed and high altitude flight. He went one step further and bought up a mess of ex air force B-34 Ventura's mainly from the S. African Air force. These became the Howard 350 though many parts trickled down to the 500 the wings and fuselages of the 500 were new. He got all he could from the 350 but again it lacked the pressurization, quiet comfort, and range he needed. So, he purchased the jigs from Lockheed of Burbank, to build the fuselages himself. Problem was, he found out he was not going to get the speed without the newer DC-6 engine and a new wing so he had to make his own wing jigs and decided on a wet wing to optimize wt. and capacity emulating the connies, dc4, and dc-6's. Back to the fuselage matter, with the requirement for press. He was forced to build the fuselages up from scratch due to the new transport category (car-4b) certification process he was seeking. He wanted his customers to know that his plane meets the new (121) standards of the day. (And they have had a tremendous safety record. not one plane was ever lost due to a mechanical failure!! still to this day). The confusion about its’ lineage comes in from guys tracing serial nos. of the B-34 to the Howard aero doorstep, only to appear out the other end as a 500. or so they thought. What actually happened was that Dee disassembled them and took as much as he could off each to support the 500. There are many original small parts but every major part from the Ventura has been altered in some form or fashion. I have also found that no two Howard 500's are the same. There are subtle differences on ea ship. The Howard 500 weighs almost 15,000 lbs more than the L-18. It has a tremendous horsepower advantage and more gadgets than Carter has pills. After some 46-47 L-18 and B-34 conversions which became Howard 250's and 350's he started on the 500 around 1957 and got the first ones out in 59-60. They only built 16 of them. and most were recalled to meet the car4b standards they went back out the door in 1963 and to the customers. All custom built interiors and accouterments, again, no two were the same. Just like a BBJ today walk in the door no two are the same. There are only 6 left today we have 2 of them. One is flying this is it!!! A logging co in Portland Oregon had it last and I did the restore for him. He owned a DC-3, beech 18, staggerwing g-17, stearman, amphib beaver and so on......
Specs:
N500hp.........yr 1960-63 Max speed.....ind. 306k
Standard airworthiness cert. Cruise.........50% pwr 270 kts/true
Mgw.......34,565lbs Vmc...........95kts
Empty......24000lbs Vso............80kts
Engines....P&W R2800 CB-16/17 2500hp. ea. Vlo............191kts
Props......Hamilton Standard 24E60 Vfe……….202 kts
Fuel cap. ......1546 gals = 9276lbs. About 4000 ft. for most ops.
Oil cap.........75 gal but 5500 ft + is best for field lengths
Grade.........100ll/115-145 Pressurization 6.75 to 1
Fuel flow.......200 gal/hr for flight planning (holds 2000 cabin @ 21000 ft)
Cruise..........184gal/hr wing span 71 ft..
Endurance ...... 8 hrs 10 min. length 57ft
Max range.......2200 nm. (2568 statute) height.....14 ft.
wheel tread........22ft.
Attributes/options/highlights
Darton preoiler system $10k
Darton oil evacuation system (clean kits) $40K
Oil and engine oil pumps preheaters built in.
115vAC 2250 KVA solid-state static inverters
New 100 KVA solid-state static instrument inverters
Heated wind screens (105 deg.)
Boosted flight controls (dual hydr. systems)
Goodyear Antiskid
Auto Feather
Auto Compressor diconnect
Deluxe Custom Restroom with modern outside filler port and service.
Total engine instrument redundancy (with LCD color graphics display)
Huge galley and built in CD, VCR, and 13" color TV.
Lots of hardwood (Birdseye maple MRI for voids)
Custom cockpit cabinetry (jepp chart case)
Large windows, huge external baggage!!
Fold out tables, fully reclining leather seats
7 foot couch.
Entertainment and oxygen at ea. Seat.
New halon fire extinguishers
Jump seat
Senheiser noise canceling headsets for the cockpit w/atc-music mode.
Times
5060 ttac
800 smoh
on precision airmotive engines
367 hrs smoh on props
Pitot static, transponder 2yr, altimeter, just done april 2002
Avionics
Dual king HSI (kcs 55’s)
Collins DME
dual KX 165 Nav coms
Dual king transponders
Dual king kma 24a audio panels w/mkr beacons
Dual ILS
Dual GPS Capability
UPS/APOLLO GX50 GPS
Couples to the no # 1 hsi and MFD
8” UPS MFD GX20 that displays every instrument approach in the USA
Full pilots and copilots flight instruments.
Third attitude indicator
King radar altimeter
BFG Wx500 stormscope
David Clark intercom
Gps to LOC/Nav auto switching when loc/gs freq selected
Bookmarks