Typed onto a piece of paper attached to the image: "Fete, Hughes, and crew at Luncheon. Left to right at the head of the table are Harry P. Connor, navigator of the Hughes plane, Grover Whalen, Howard hughes, Mayor Fiorello Laguardia of New York City, Thomas Thurlow, Navigator, Richard Stoddart, radio engineer, and Edward Lund, flight engineer. At the bottom center of the photo is William Randolph Hearst, Jr., son of the publisher. 7/15/38"
Howard Hughes (in white shirt) supervises construction of the Hughes D-2 at the Hughes Aircraft Company. in Culver City, California. The D-2 was the prototype of the XF-11.