Aerial view of Hughes HK-1, Flying Boat. The plane was designed and built by Howard Hughes; it it shown near completion at its graving dock at Terminal Island in the Los Angeles Harbor. Transcribed from note on back of photo: "World's largest airplane--After Ground tests here the plane will undergo extensive water-taxi tests."

Howard Hughes descending a stairway from Constellation 069, at the Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. in 1944.

Transcribed from press release: "HUGHES TEST DERRICK This 118-foot field-size oil derrick tower above a block-long laboratory in Houston, Texas, where the Hughes Tool Company simulates every drilling condition in the world in order to produce tough, long-lasting drill bits for the oil industry. Rock bits are responsible for tapping of deep oil fields where today 90 per cent of the world's oil is found."

Transcribed press release from back of photograph: "Howard Hughes' flying boat, world's largest plane, rides free off Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor immediately after its launching yesterday. The plane's vertical stabilizer tip rides about 80 feet above the water as the air giant floats for the first time. With Hughes at the controls, the colossal craft will get first water taxi tests today."

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.

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.