From the Howard Cannon Photograph Collection (PH-00192)

From the Howard Cannon Photograph Collection (PH-00192)

Howard Hughes in the pilot's chair with (left to right) Dave Evans, Rae Hopper, and crew chief Charles Jucker (in the dark jacket).

A view of Howard Hughes' Flying Boat being prepared for a test run in Long Beach, California.

The black and white, skyline view of New York City with Lockheed 14 aircraft flying in the foreground. Typed onto script included with the image: "Howard Hughes plane Lockheed 14 in flight over lower New York City. To right in the background can be seen New York City's three bridges of the lower East River from front to rear: the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and the Williamsburg Bridge."

Transcribed from attached press release: "HUGHES TEST-PILOTS SECOND XF-11. CULVER CITY, Calif., April 5. Preparatory to making its first flight test today, Howard Hughes, famed flier-industrialist, is shown in the cockpit of the second XF-11 sister ship to the plane in which he almost lost his life in an accident last July 7. Hughes designed and built the ship, one of the world's fastest long-range reconnaissance planes for the Army Air forces in conjunction with the Air Materiel Command engineers."