The photo that currently exists on here is in no way an Oakland Centaurus, those are civilian mods of the Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon. The real Howard 500 was never a conversion of anything. It is a brand new airplane with a new fuselage, new center section, and outer-wing panels complete with wet wing. Only two fly now, but at one time 22 were built and sold and as of 1978 18 were still operational. N500HP is a genuine 500. N500LN has been purchased by the same group who own the previously mentioned aircraft. On February 20, 1963 was when Dee Howard was awarded type certificate. It was too late by ten years. The Howard 500 has a max cruise of 350 KTS. and a max range of 2300 NM…
Minor correction: The cruise speed should be 350 MPH, not knots, according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_500
This page tpaero.com/Howard500.html indicates 325 mph.
That information is incorrect. Max cruise is 350 KTS. not MPH and the Howard does much better at altitude than the 325 MPH indicated elsewhere. The airplane is clearly much faster than the Gulf 1, like some would have you to believe. The Howard I was in 1975 was at FL 280 and we were indicating 340 KTAS on a flight from Pontiac to Miami.