The Howard Hughes Memorial Award is an aviation industry award presented annually by the Aero Club of Southern California. According to the Association's official website, the award is given "to an aerospace leader whose accomplishments over a long career have contributed significantly to the advancement of aviation or space technology."

The award was established in 1978 by William R. Lummis, a first cousin of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

, who at the time was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of Summa Corp.. Recipients of the Howard Hughes Memorial Award receive a solid silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 medallion cast from silver mined from Hughes' Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 mining operations.

Recipients

• Jack Northrop
• Jimmy Doolittle
  Jimmy Doolittle
  General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, USAF was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a brigadier general, major general and lieutenant general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War...
  
  
• Lawrence A. Hyland
  Lawrence A. Hyland
  Lawrence A. "Pat" Hyland was an American electrical engineer. He is one of several people credited with major contributions to the invention of radar, but is probably best known as the man who transformed Hughes Aircraft from Howard Hughes' aviation "hobby shop" into one of the world's leading...
  
  
• Robert Six
  Robert Six
  Robert Forman Six was the CEO of Continental Airlines from 1936 to 1981. Six's career began in the earliest days of U.S. commercial aviation. His determined, scrappy, risk-taking nature paid off for Continental Airlines, the company that would for forty-five years be forged in his image...
  
  
• Kelly Johnson
  Clarence Johnson
  Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson was an aircraft engineer and aeronautical innovator. As a member and first team leader of the Lockheed Skunk Works, Johnson worked for more than four decades and is said to have been an "organizing genius"...
  
  
• Chuck Yeager
  Chuck Yeager
  Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
  
  
• Ed Heinemann
  Ed Heinemann
  Edward Henry Heinemann, was a noted military aircraft designer for Douglas Aircraft Company.-Biography:...
  
  
• Barry Goldwater
  Barry Goldwater
  Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
  
  
• Pete Conrad
  Pete Conrad
  Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. was an American naval officer, astronaut and engineer, and the third person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission. He set an eight-day space endurance record along with command pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission, and commanded the Gemini 11 mission...
  
  
• Allen E. Paulson
  Allen E. Paulson
  Allen Eugene Paulson was an American aviation entrepreneur, philanthropist, thoroughbred racehorse breeder and owner, and a self-made multi-millionaire.-Business career in aviation:Born in Clinton, Iowa, Allen E...
  
  
• Simon Ramo
  Simon Ramo
  Simon "Si" Ramo is an American physicist, engineer, and business leader. He led development of microwave and missile technology and is sometimes known as the father of the intercontinental ballistic missile...
  
  
• Jack Real
  Jack Real
  Jack G. Real was an aerospace pioneer and Howard Hughes confidant.-Career at Lockheed:After graduating from Calumet High School in Calumet, Michigan he quickly moved on to attend Michigan Technological University, graduating in 1937. Real moved to California in 1939 and went to work for Lockheed...
  
  
• Ben Rich
  Ben Rich
  Benjamin Robert Rich was the second director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth," Ben Rich was responsible for leading the development of the F-117, the first production stealth aircraft...
  
  
• Clifton Moore
• Lee Atwood
  John Leland Atwood
  John Leland "Lee" Atwood was an engineer and manager in the aerospace industry. He worked in various prominent positions at North American Aviation for over 35 years. The International Aerospace Hall of Fame invested Atwood in 1984. Atwood Dorm at Harvey Mudd College is named after him...
  
  
• Harry Wetzel
• Bobbi Trout
• Thomas Victor Jones
  Thomas Victor Jones
  -Biography:He graduated magna cum laude in engineering from Stanford University. He went to work at Douglas Aircraft Company in 1942. He worked for the Brazilian Air Ministry to create the Aeronautical Institute of Technology from 1947 to 1951. Around 1953 he went to work for the RAND Corporation...
  
  
• Allen Puckett
• Paul MacCready
  Paul MacCready
  Paul B. MacCready, Jr. was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the Kremer prize...
  
  
• John Brizendine
• Willis Hawkins
  Willis Hawkins
  Willis M. Hawkins was an aeronautical engineer for Lockheed for more than fifty years. He was hired to the company in 1937, immediately after receiving his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Michigan...
  
  
• Sam Iacobellis
• Kent Kresa
  Kent Kresa
  Kent Kresa is an American businessman. Formerly, he was Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman, as well as Chairman of General Motors and has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency , the Lincoln Laboratory at M.I.T, Avery Dennison, the Fluor Corporation, and the MannKind Corporation...
  
  
• Neil Armstrong
  Neil Armstrong
  Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
  
  
• Frank D. Robinson
  Frank D. Robinson
  Franklin D. "Frank" Robinson is an engineer and the founder, president and Chief Executive Officer of Robinson Helicopter Company of Torrance, California...
  
  
• Burt Rutan
  Burt Rutan
  Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...
  
  
• Eileen Collins
  Eileen Collins
  Eileen Marie Collins is a retired American astronaut and a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle. She was awarded several medals for her work. Col. Collins has logged 38 days 8...
  
  
• James Albaugh
• Ron Sugar
• Bob Hoover
  Bob Hoover
  Robert A. "Bob" Hoover is a former air show pilot and United States Air Force test pilot, known for his wide-brimmed straw hat and wide smile. In aviation circles, he is often referred to as "The pilots' pilot."-Aviation career:...