Howard Hughes leaving the cockpit of a Northrop Gamma, surrounded by a crowd at Newark New Jersey Airport. Hughes set a coast-to-coast speed record. A bank of microphones and a movie camera are seen beside the plane.
Description given with photo: "Before Surprise Flight, Long Beach, Calif.: No longer land-locked, Howard Hughes' 200-ton flying boat, world's largest plane, rides free in Los Angeles harbor after being floated for the first time. The builder and pilot later took the controversial plane into the air for a surprise one-mile flight during taxing trials. Credit (ACME) 11-3-47."