The black and white view of Howard Hughes and his crew being surrounded by crowds as they exit the Lockheed 14 aircraft after finishing the Around the World flight at Floyd Bennett Airfield in New York. Description printed on photograph's accompanying sheet of paper: "Hughes reception at Floyd Bennett Field 7/14/38 (Press Association"
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"
Description given with photo: "Before Surprise Flight, Long Beach, Calif.: No longer land-locked, Howard Hughes' 200-ton flying boat, world's largest plane, rides free in Los Angeles harbor after being floated for the first time. The builder and pilot later took the controversial plane into the air for a surprise one-mile flight during taxing trials. Credit (ACME) 11-3-47."
A view of Howard Hughes (right) being asked about his controversial XF-11 photo reconnaissance plane by Senator Harry Cain (left), Republican of Washington, in Culver City, California. An unidentified man sits between the two.
Transcribed from attached press release: "LITTLE BIT Only an inch and a quarter in diameter, this "microbit" enables engineers at the Hughes Tool Company, Houston, Texas, to estimate the performance of full-size bits for the oil drilling industry. The company operates the largest testing laboratory of its kind anywhere in the world and produces thousands of rock bits necessary to drill deeper and deeper as the world's shallow oil wells have become exhausted. Howard Hughes terms the Hughes Tool company the "keystone" of his industrial empire."