Howard 500

[geeoh480]

Howard 500-105 built in 1963, not 1960..

[TexasVTail]

Got to take a ride in N500HP about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Just an absolutely amazing airplane. Tony still owes me a ride in his Albatross too. If you can believe it, it is even nicer than the Howard.

He regularly flies the Howard all over the country. He's looking to pass it on to someone else if he can find someone that will actually fly it more than twice a year and keep it in the U.S.. Would be a shame to see it end up in Singapore or some museum collecting dust. Tony's one of the great rare guys that actually gets out there and uses his vintage birds as much as he can. They take the Albatross up to Canada all the time on fishing trips too.

280+kt cruise on 200gph
twin R-2800 double wasp engines rated at 2,500hp - but running a little less due to octane derating
6.75 - 1 pressurization
Full modern instrument panel with full Garmin GPS/Comm/MFD stack
5 star interior with full restroom with running water
6' 2" cabin you can stand up in
and on and on and on.

Remarkably quiet ride too. Tons of sound proofing and engine rpms in 1,000 range make for a nice low freq. hum.

[rossjools]

, About 17 years ago I was loaned an American magazine with a story on the Howard 500. On the cover was a beautiful picture of the 500. to add to the features listed in an above post it apparently had a system whereby if one engine failed the other immediately automatically went to METO power.

Cheers,
Ross.

[fd1962]

We have a Howard 500 page on facebook, just do the search and "voila" and I'm quite active with the type. I used to crew a Howard 500 based at Pontiac, MI in 1975 it was N80BD and belonged to Boutell Driveaway, later it was sold to a Ranch in Florida and crashed in Yosemite full of pot, this was a beautiful pristine airplane and she had to end up this way..

I was a line technician for Michigan Aviation, and the pilots insisted that I personally had all access to the airplane at anytime, fueling, towing and what not. I rode in it to Florida and back and we did every bit of 370 KTAS @ 31,000 feet, although limited to 25,000 feet with passengers I was not considered a passenger, I was part of the crew...

Dee Howard invented luxurious business travel in large airplanes, he was an innovator!!

Stephen

I was at Hill Aviation (Legendary Frank Hill) in Ft. Lauderdale in '77 or '78 (sorry, senior moment) waiting for maintenance on my own MkII Learstar. Howard 500 N80BD was also briefly in residence over one night, whether for service or simply staging, I don't know. Met the young pilot briefly who allegedly owned it, confided his specialty was night running over Mex. border at ground level through Ariz. and diving into the LA Basin traffic. Had the opportunity to enter the plane that night and see the beautiful lighted cockpit array - something I shall always remember in my mind's eye, as the Learstars were neat too, but hugely spartan in comparison to this air-Maserati. The kid locked up, went to eat, I guess, and the plane was gone by morning. Scuttlebutt later around Hills was that the pilot crashed into a desert Saguaro at night, but, of course, never any reliable confirmation. That's as close as I ever got to one of these magnificent 500's, and regret the pristine plane's ultimate loss, but feel fortunate to have at least stepped into one once in my lifetime.

fd1962

[Rick65]

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/threa ... 72&tn=1680

An 1686 post topic running from 2005 to the current on the crash of N80BD into Lower Merced Pass Lake and the impact of it's cargo on the local climbing community. Will there ever be a book?
You have to love the internet and search engines.