Lawrence A. Hyland

Who was Lawrence A. Hyland?

Lawrence A. "Pat" Hyland was an American electrical engineer. He is one of several people credited with major contributions to the invention of radar, but is probably best known as the man who transformed Hughes Aircraft from Howard Hughes' aviation "hobby shop" into one of the world's leading technology companies.

Hyland was born in Nova Scotia, Canada but his family moved to the U.S. in 1899, where he was raised in Massachusetts. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and then in the U.S. Navy until 1926. Hyland then joined the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory as a radio engineer. While at NRL he first demonstrated the reflection of radio waves from aircraft, and also made other contributions to the development of doppler radar.

In 1932 Hyland founded the Radio Research Company, which would later be merged into the Bendix Corporation; he eventually became Vice President for Research and Engineering at Bendix.

In 1954 Hyland was hired as Vice President and General Manager of Hughes Aircraft; he would ultimately become company President and CEO after Howard Hughes' death in 1976. Under Hyland's guidance, Hughes Aircraft continued to diversify and become immensely profitable.