Howard Hughes
Pancho Barnes and Howard Hughes first crossed paths in the refined social circles of Pasadena in the early 1920s. Hughes’ parents spent their winters at the elegant Vista Del Arroyo Hotel, often seen at Sunday brunches at the Green Hotel, where Pasadena’s well-to-do families gathered. Among them were the Lowes….Pancho’s family….whose friendships and acquaintances overlapped naturally with the Hughes’s.
It was there, as a spirited teenager, that Pancho first met Hughes. What began as a casual introduction quickly grew into a lifelong friendship grounded in their shared passion for aviation. Hughes, the ambitious young aviator and budding filmmaker, and future billionaire industrialist, recognized in Pancho a kindred spirit: bold, fearless, and driven by the sky.
By the time Hughes began production on Hell’s Angels in 1930, Pancho had already made a name for herself as a skilled stunt pilot. For ‘Hell’s Angels’ she flew her airplane, with it’s throaty sounding engine, past recording equipment to provide the raw sound effects Hughes needed
Their friendship carried forward into later years, when Pancho founded her famed Happy Bottom Riding Club near Edwards Air Force Base. Hughes became one of the earliest members of the Club and he supported her venture in characteristically dramatic fashion. According to interviews with musician Lloyd Norman, who was there the day it happened, Hughes personally delivered the air-conditioning units to the Club by helicopter after recommending that Pancho install them for her guests’ comfort. He also urged her to purchase a Cessna T-50 “Bamboo Bomber,” which became her shuttle aircraft for ferrying celebrities, military brass, and fellow aviators from Los Angeles straight to her desert retreat.
These gestures were more than technical advice, they were signs of Hughes’ enduring respect and affection for Pancho, recognizing her as not just a daring pilot but as a visionary host and entrepreneur who, like him, lived life at full throttle.
Pancho’s Bamboo Bomber
