Search Results
Photograph of XF-11 aircraft before first test flight, Culver City (Calif.), April 1947
Date
1947-04
Archival Collection
Description
Hughes' aircraft (the XF-11) sitting on the tarmac before its first test flight in Culver City, California in April of 1947. Newspaper clipping taped to the back of the image reads: "#11, Long-Range Plane Completed. Culver City, Calif. -- The new Hughes XF-11 is a very fast photographic plane with a ceiling of more than 40,000 feet. It has a pressurized cabin, making it unnecessary for the crew to use oxygen masks. It is shown here before it made its first test flight."
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Photograph of the Hughes Flying Boat being moved from Long Beach to Terminal Island, California, June 1946
Date
1946
Archival Collection
Description
Transcribed from attached press release: "Wide World Photos Please Credit A-63899 (Part of Series) $58,000 LONG BEACH, CAL. A view of the hull of Howard Hughes new $20,000,000 cargo flying boat at the pontoon bridge, ready to be moved from Long Beach to Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor, there is a graving dock it will be assembled with other parts of the ship."
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Photograph of Flying Boat engines after test flight, circa 1947
Date
1947
Archival Collection
Description
Press release attached to photo: "HUGHES FLYING BOAT Howard Hughes' massive wooden flying boat, which flew November 2, 1947, is shown in its Long Beach hangar in the first official photograph released since its flight. The airplane, with a wing span of 320 feet, remains today the largest ever constructed. The U. S. Navy has expressed interest in it for experimentation, although no transaction has yet been made." Stamped on photo: "HUGHES HELICOPTERS DIVISION OF SUMMA CORPORATION CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA." Los Angeles Harbor is now known as Long Beach Harbor.
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Aerial photograph of Hughes Flying Boat ready for tests, Terminal Island, California, October 13, 1946
Date
1946-10-13
Archival Collection
Description
Press Release attached to photo: "HUGHES HERCULES READY FOR TESTS. LONG BEACH, CAL. An aerial view shows Howard Hughes' giant plywood seaplane Hercules ready for taxi tests at Long Beach. The initial flight of the plane, which cost $20,000,000 and will seat 700 persons, will not be attempted until early in 1947. ACME 10/13/46." Los Angeles Harbor, Terminal Island are now known as Long Beach.
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Photograph of launching world's largest plane, Los Angeles Harbor, November 1, 1947
Date
1947-11-01
Archival Collection
Description
Press release attached to back of photo: "LAUNCHING WORLD'S LARGEST PLANE The Hughes Flying boat was launched for the first time November 1, 1947. After the three concrete docks, one containing the hull and two the wing pontoons, were pumped with sea water to the outside level, gates were lowered and the Flying Boat was carefully towed forward by tractors, and by boats as the tail cleared the dock. During taxi tests the following day Howard Hughes made a surprise flight of a mile." Stamped on back of photo: "Hughes Aircraft Photo" and the date "Nov 1 1947." Los Angeles Harbor is now known as Long Beach.
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Photograph of new machine shop for Research, Product and Metallurgical engineering departments, circa 1924
Date
1924
Archival Collection
Description
Transcribed from press release attached to photograph: "LABORATORY MACHINE SHOP SPEEDS PRODUCT RESEARCH The Hughes Laboratory machine shop is devote to the building of full-scale test models of rock bits, tool joints and other drilling tools for laboratory and field testing. In connection with the latter, the shop is equipped to manufacture these tools in sufficient quantities to make possible extensive and simultaneous field trials. The machine shop handles a large amount of work for the Research, Product and Metallurgical engineering departments. This includes building new designs, new machines and new devices for preliminary testing."
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Photograph of aerial photographic map viewed by Lt Marvin R. Williams and Sgt. Erickson, circa 1940s-1950s.
Date
1940 to 1959
Archival Collection
Description
Sergeant Stanley R. Erickson puts together an aerial photographic map while Lieutenant Marvin R. Williams of Sligo, Pennsylvania looks on. Sergeant Erickson is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gustav Erickson of 1922 Bernice Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Erickson is a member of a mapping group in the Army Air Forces that was working with the Howard Hughes Company. The photo has the identification 19828 A. C. in the bottom right corner.
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Photograph of Hughes Tool Company Derrick, Houston Texas, circa 1940s-1950s
Date
1940 to 1959
Archival Collection
Description
Transcribed from press release: "HUGHES TEST DERRICK This 118-foot field-size oil derrick tower above a block-long laboratory in Houston, Texas, where the Hughes Tool Company simulates every drilling condition in the world in order to produce tough, long-lasting drill bits for the oil industry. Rock bits are responsible for tapping of deep oil fields where today 90 per cent of the world's oil is found."
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Photograph of a worker at Hughes Tool Company, Houston, Texas, circa 1940s-1950s
Date
1940 to 1959
Archival Collection
Description
Press release attached to back of photo: "A roughneck fits a new Hughes Jet bit into the drill collar preparatory to running the drill stem into the hold. In 1953 more than 500,000 rock bits produced by the Hughes Tool Company of Houston, Texas, were used in the United States alone. The invention of the rock bit by Howard R. Hughes, Sr., made it possible to drill far deeper into the earth beyond the shallow oil deposits which are now practically exhausted. Without rotary drilling equipment of this kind the world might revert to a horse and buggy economy."
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Photograph of the interior of Hughes Tool Co., Houston, Texas, circa 1950s
Date
1950 to 1959
Archival Collection
Description
Transcribed from attached press release: HUGHES TOOL COMPANY Cornerstone of the industrial empire of Howard Hughes is the Hughes Tool Company of Houston, Texas, which last year produced more than half a million rock bits for drilling the kind of deep wells now producing 90 per cent of the world's petroleum. In the company's mechanical testing section (above) engineers test the products under conditions simulating actual drilling. Howard Hughes' father's invention of the rock bit is believed to be one of the most important industrial developments of the century; without such a tool we might still be living in a horse and buggy era."
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