Hughes Aerospace Corporation is an American air navigation service provider that specializes in the design, validation, and maintenance of instrument flight procedures. The company is noted for work in Performance-based navigation (PBN) and rotorcraft operations.
Hughes Aerospace was established in 2008 by Chris Baur, a former pilot with the U.S. Army, Coast Guard, Air Force, the US Customs Service and Continental Airlines. The company was created to address growing demand for advanced navigation procedure design and expanded its operations to work with airports, commercial operators, government agencies, and international aviation authorities.
Hughes Aerospace is headquartered in Houston, Texas. It holds certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a Part 97 Public Service Provider and is endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other sovereign nations as an air navigation service provider.
The FAA has approved Hughes Aerospace as a Part 97 Public Service Provider, authorizing it to develop and maintain public instrument flight procedures in the United States. ICAO endorsement allows the company to provide similar services internationally, including China.
Hughes Aerospace designs and maintains instrument flight procedures, with a focus on PBN and helicopter operations. Services include:
In 2025, Hughes Aerospace collaborated with Garmin to introduce guided visual approaches that support autopilot-coupled visual procedures for WAAS-equipped aircraft.
The company designs and maintains performance-based navigation procedures, including RNP and RNP AR instrument flight procedures.
In addition to fixed-wing procedures, the company has been involved in extending performance-based navigation concepts to rotorcraft and emerging vertical-lift operations, including satellite-based instrument procedures for heliports and vertiports and development work on guided visual approaches in partnership with avionics manufacturers.
Between 2015 and 2017, Hughes Aerospace worked with Bell Helicopter to develop procedures for helicopter operators in China. In 2019, the company validated an IFR helicopter network using RNP 0.3 and RF segment coding.
In 2024, the Naples Airport Authority awarded Hughes Aerospace a contract to develop noise mitigation procedures. Aircraft altitudes were increased before descent, with testing beginning in 2025.
<big>Alaska</big>
Hughes has participated in several Navigation Projects, supporting General Aviation (GA) in Alaska. A key and historic GA airport supporting the state's General Aviation network is Merrill Field in Anchorage. Hughes developed and published several GPS Instrument Flight Procedures at Merrill Field that are aligned with its runways.
Hughes in partnership with Honeywell developed (5) GLS precision approaches at Shanghai Pudong International Airport that demonstrated both the capabilities of GBAS and RNP. These were the first GLS precision approaches in China and the first successful demonstration of Advanced RNP to a GLS precision final approach.
The company's founder, Chris Baur, serves as chief executive officer. Baur is an aviator with experience in military, law enforcement, and commercial aviation, including military service with the U.S. Army, Coast Guard, and Air Force.
In a 2025 interview, Baur said he began flying helicopters in the U.S. Army in 1983 and later served in the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Air Force (Air National Guard and Reserve). He said that during his Air Force tenure his civilian job included serving as a pilot and criminal investigator for the U.S. Customs Service, and that he later became an airline pilot with Continental Airlines. A profile republished by the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team describes him as a Customs pilot assigned to the New York Aviation Unit, and a Captain in the New York Air National Guard. It further states he flew a HH-60G Pave Hawk during a December 1994 search-and-rescue mission, following the sinking of the Ukrainian freighter MV Salvador Allende which broke up during a storm in the North Atlantic.
During his tenue with the U.S. Customs Service, Baur rescued three fishermen from the Fishing Vessel Gannett, off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Baur heard the Mayday distress call from the F/V Gannett before it sank. Flying a seized US Customs Piper PA31 Navajo, Baur and fellow agent Mike Brenner devised a plan to open the aircraft's two-piece main entry door in-flight, enabling them to throw out their emergency raft to the fishermen. According to an interview with the survivors, the raft was successfully deployed from the aircraft within five feet of their location. Baur and Brenner orbited over the raft until the Coast Guard arrived later. Attorney General Janel Reno presented both Baur and Brenner the Federal Law Enforcement Officer's Association (FLEOA) Medal of Valor for heroism in a ceremony on May 5th, 1995.
Baur holds degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Brown University, and IE Business School and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
While serving in the US Coast Guard, Baur took off from Floyd Bennett Field, which was fogged in at the time, piloting an HH65A Dolphin helicopter in response to US Air flight 5050, which crashed on take off from LaGuardia Airport. Baur successfully located the survivors in the water who were swept by the current under the runway.
Baur participated in the 1994 Salvador Allende helicopter rescue mission, recognized as one of the longest over-water helicopter rescues in history.
Since 2023, he has served as Industry Co-Chair of the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), a regional member of The Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST), and in 2025 he was elected to the Board of Directors of Vertical Aviation International.