Howard Hughes   Hughes developed the AIM-120 AMRAAM, one of the world's most advanced air-to-air missiles Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" Hughes' Galileo probe being deployed     Hughes-built NASA Surveyor lunar lander   OH-6A Cayuse N53HC in police livery. Note original slanted stabilizer design on tail and four-bladed main rotor, characteristics shared with the civilian Hughes 500C. Type Attack helicopter     Perhaps Hughes' most successful helicopter designs, the Apache AH-64. The helicopter began as Hughes Model 77 for the U.S. Army's advanced attack helicopter (AAH) competition STATEMENT TO MILITARY HISTORIANS    We would like to point out that, without the genius of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, tens of thousands more military lives would've been lost in WWII, Korea and Vietnam and that he, MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE, was the chief factor in building America's military strength.    In 1931, Hughes Tool Company created drill bits which increased oil extraction 12-fold and cut drilling time in half. Without plentiful oil and its derivatives, we would've LOST World War II. In 1941, Hughes became the largest supplier of weapons to the United States. From 1941-43, he doubled the rate of fire for 50-caliber machine guns by designing a revolutionary new feed chute. In 1947, he created the airborne troop carrier, which enables soldiers and equipment to arrive at conflict zones in hours instead of days.    From 1950-56, Hughes' invention of the air-to-air missile with seek-and-find radar made him so valuable to the military that President Harry Truman called him "the human linchpin of America's air defenses." In 1959, Hughes developed the battle-conditioned helicopter, used extensively in the Vietnam War. In the 1960's, he invented the first unmanned satellite, ushering in the era of communications craft in the sky.