A view of Howard Hughes preparing to fly the Air Force test plane.

Howard Hughes (second from left) standing in front of the experimental helicopter XH-17, Flying Crane in October 1952. From left to right: Rea Hopper, Director of the Aeronautical Division, Hughes Aircraft Company; Howard Hughes; Clyde Jones, Director of Engineering, Hughes Tool Company Aeronautical Division; Warren Reed, Assistant; Colonel Carl E. Jackson, Air Research and Development Headquarters, Baltimore; Gale J. Moore, Pilot; and Chal Bowen, Flight Engineer/Co-pilot.

A view of Howard Hughes preparing to fly the Air Force test plane.

A view of Howard Hughes preparing to fly the Air Force test plane.

A view of Howard Hughes preparing to fly the Air Force test plane.

The black and white view of a crowd of people awaiting the arrival Lockheed 14 aircraft at Floyd Bennett Airport in New York. Typed onto a piece of paper attached to the image: "Tumultuous welcome awaits world fliers here Floyd Bennett Airport, N.Y. -- Policemen lined up on the field here awaiting the arrival of Howard Hughes and his companions, New York bound from Minneapolis, on the last leg of their epochal Round-The-World flight. By noon, a crowd of 6,000 persons had gathered at the airport, and it was increasing by the moment. Credit line (ACME). 7/14/38."

Description printed on photograph's accompanying strip of paper: "Hughes catches up with cables in Moscow. Moscow---Howard Hughes, sorting a packet of congratulatory cables on his arrival in Moscow. He was just beginning to sprout stubble with which he returned to New York, after his record-smashing round-the-world dash. 7/25/38"