Description printed on photograph's accompanying strip of paper: Hughes Buys New Plane. Attendants at the Floyd Bennet Airport, in Brooklyn, New York, inspecting the tire on the plane Howard Hughes recently purchased from the Sikorsky Company. Hughes accepted delivery September 30th, and flew the plane from Bridgeport. The tire blew as he was making a test landing. No other damage was done. Credit Line (ACME) 9/30/37

From the Howard Cannon Photograph Collection (PH-00192)

Date stamped on back of photo: Nov 2, 1947. Transcribed from attached press release: "IN THE AIR Hughes Flying boat, with Howard Hughes at the controls, takes to the air at Los Angeles Harbor November 2, 1947. LONG BEACH, Calif., Nov. 2 - - Howard Hughes' 400,000-pound flying boat, world's largest plane, in the air on its first flight. The mammoth aircraft today flew one mile at a height of 70 feet over Los Angeles Harbor with Hughes at the controls. Hughes had scheduled taxi tests only for the 219-foot long ship but it 'felt so good' on the second taxi test run at 95 miles per hour that he took it off the water, as shown here, on the third and final run. The super plane's air speed was 100 miles per hour. Take-off speed was 95 miles per hour. Hughes termed the tests exceptionally successful. The eight-engine behemoth, launched yesterday off Terminal Island, passed its tests today in view of thousands on the shore and in small craft near the test area."