Description printed on photograph's accompanying strip of paper: "Howard Hughes examining the damaged tail of his plane after his arrival at the Le Bourget Airfield, Paris, on his world flight. July 1938"
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.