Description given with photograph: "Howard Hughes tests the Hughes plane. Seattle--Howard Hughes (right), millionaire aviation enthusiast and record holder, shown with Edmund T. Allen, Boeing test engineer, before they made a recent test flight in a Boeing-built Stratoliner. The huge machine was equipped with extra fuel tanks for the test. Hughes did not reveal the reasons for his interest in the four-motored, 30 passenger plane, designed for substratosphere flight."

Transcribed from press release attached to back of photo: "NEW PHOTO PLANE TEST-FLOWN CULVER CITY, California, July 7 -- Howard Hughes, who designed and built the new FX-11 reconnaissance plane in conjunction with Air Materiel Command engineers, sits in the pilot's bubble-glass canopy preparing for the first test flight. One of the world's fastest long-range photo planes, the XF-11 can attain a speed of more than 400 miles per hour, Army officials said. It is powered by two 3000-horsepower radial engines with eight-bladed contra-rotating propellers. Outstanding features include a full-span flap, unique eight-camera layout, and exceptionally fast take-off." Transcribed from photo sleeve: "Howard Hughes sits in the cockpit of the XF-11, a reconnaissance plane that Hughes built and designed in conjunction with Air Materiel Command engineers. Hughes is preparing for his first test flight in Culver City, California July 7, 1947.

A section of Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" or "Flying Boat" being moved (with a police escort) from the Hughes Aircraft plant in Culver City, California to Terminal Island in the Los Angeles Harbor where the plane was assembled in June of 1946.

Description printed on photograph's accompanying sheet of paper: "Gen. view parade: As globe fliers braved Broadway blizzard, New York. Although they didn't encounter a single snowflake on their roaring dash across Siberia, Howard Hughes and his four-man crew met a regular blizzard (of Broadway ticker tape) today as New York paid them homage as only New York know how. This is a view of the scene as the triumphal procession proceeded from the Battery to City Call. In the car are (left to right) Grover Whalen, President of the New York World's Fair, Howard Hughes and Al Lodwick, his press representative. (w) 7-15-38.30."

Description printed on back of photograph: "At Grover Whalen's home, 48 Washington Mews [sic]. From left to right: L. Thomas Thurlow, Comm. Hl Flannigan, Edward Lund, Howard Hughes, Grover Whalen, R. Stoddart, and Harry Connor. 6/38."

The black and white view of motorcycle police awaiting the arrival of Howard Hughes at Floyd Bennett Field in New York. Typed onto a piece of paper attached to the image: "Motorcycle police on hand for Hughes' landing, New York city -- Motorcycle policemen lined up on Floyd Bennett Field, July 14th, to help keep in check the crowd of 30,000 persons that gathered to greet Howard Hughes and his heroic crew as they landed their giant Lockheed plain after their record-smashing flight around the world. Credit Line (ACME). 7/14/38."

Howard Hughes in the cockpit of his XF-11 airplane before his first test flight.