Helicopter developer Jack Real dies at age 90

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, September 10, 2005

LOS ANGELES – Aviation pioneer Jack Real, who helped develop the Apache helicopter and authored a book on his friendship with reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, has died. He was 90.

Real died Sept. 6 of heart failure at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, longtime companion Betty O’Connor said Saturday. He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease and had been hospitalized for nearly a year.

“He was a such a special man and had an influential role in the aviation industry,” said O’Connor, a former executive administrative assistant at Lockheed. “He was a very kind, gentle man, but firm.”

Real was a vice president for Lockheed Martin Corp. and headed Hughes’ helicopter division before becoming president and CEO of McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co.

At the time of his death, Real was chairman emeritus of the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Ore. He was instrumental in relocating Hughes’ ill-fated massive flying boat the “Spruce Goose” to the museum in 1993.

In 2003, he published the book, “The Asylum of Howard Hughes,” which detailed his 20-year friendship with Hughes, including his efforts to arrange a flight to carry an ailing Hughes from Mexico to a Houston hospital in 1976. Hughes died en route.