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Next Moves. Unless the Civil Aeronautics Board turns thumbs down or President-elect Nixon vetoes the deal, which he can do because flights to foreign countries are involved, Hughes will get back into a business for which he has long had an appetite. A pilot himself, he set speed and round-the-world flight records, and designed such innovations as retractable landing gears. But he has a dismal record of running airlines. In control of Northeast Airlines from 1962 to 1964, he sold out when the carrier was just short of bankruptcy. Under new management, Northeast recovered. From 1939 to 1960, Hughes also controlled TWA, which flew low in the later stages of his capricious reign. Financial pressures forced Hughes to surrender his 78.2% ownership of the airline to a trust. He eventually sold his 6,584,937 shares for $546.5 million in 1966.
Despite those setbacks, the elusive industrialist is likely to make additional moves into Western aviation. He is eager to buy Los Angeles Airways, a helicopter carrier, and has an eye on the San Francisco & Oakland Helicopter Airlines. He would also like to manufacture corporate jets and look into applications and routes for vertical-take-off and short-takeoff planes. For now, Air West fits neatly into his pattern for profit. It flies from several key cities into Las Vegas, Hughes' headquarters. In Nevada, which Hughes likes because it has no state income tax, he has picked up an estimated $150 million worth of properties, including the Sands, the Desert Inn and huge ranch lands. If, as Hughes predicted in a rare statement, Las Vegas should balloon to the size of Houston, Air West will be flying right alongside.