In his first racing plane, "Pete", Howard won five air races. As competition increased, he and his partner, Gordon Israel, built two larger, low-wing, wire-braced monoplanes, "Mike" and "Ike" (which competed under the name Miss Chevrolet in honor of its sponsor). Fitted with a special carburetor, Ike was particularly quick in flying in an inverted position, and for a time held the world record for inverted speed. His sixth plane was called Mister Mulligan. It placed in competition for several pilots before it was destroyed in an accident in the 1936 New York - Los Angeles Bendix Transcontinental Race, a propeller failure costing Howard both the plane and his leg, and injured both his wife's - Maxine "Mike" Howard - legs. Mister Mulligan's fame led to the DGA-8 and the DGA-9 as well as the 1937 formation of the Howard Aircraft Corporation, which ran until 1944.
