Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City California as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing among other products the Hughes H-4 Hercules Spruce Goose aircraft the atmospheric entry probe carried by the Galileo spacecraft and the AIM-4 Falcon guided missile. It was acquired by General Motors from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1985.
