Dee and his first employee, Ed Swearingen, Jr., standing in front of the first Howard Aero building in 1947. Years later Dee, ever the salesman, boarding one of his Howard Aero built aircraft for a sales trip.
Before Dee formed Howard Aero he joined the newly formed Slick Airways, founded in 1946 by Earl Slick, one of the first post-World War II cargo airlines. Dee is in the last row standing at the far right wearing the hat.
Tony Phillippi’s Howard 500 aircraft–N500HP flying over the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The Howard Aero designed, manufactured, and certified Howard 500 received an FAA Type Certificate (TC) as an all new pressurized aircraft.
Howard Aero’s first major program was to extensively modify and remanufacture the Lockheed Ventura medium bomber into a high performance long range business aircraft that became the Howard Super Ventura.
DHC flight test BAC 1-11 equipped with Rolls Royce Tay 650 engines and DHC state of the art cold flow thrust reversers flying over The Dee Howard Co. The wings from this aircraft are on permanent display at the San Antonio International Airport.
Dee started his working career as an automobile mechanic and maintained his love for cars throughout his career. Here Dee is standing with some of his award winning classic cars, all of which were rebuilt by Dee and his team with attention to every detail.