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."
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"
From the Nye County, Nevada Photograph Collection (PH-00221) -- Series VI. Tonopah, Nevada -- Subseries VI.A. Bradshaw Family (Goldfield-Tonopah). Among those pictured are Ed Kitchen, Albert Bradshaw, Bill Barrow, A.N. Bradshaw, Dr. J.C. Cherry, John Koontz, John O’Leary, Doc Galvin, Leonard Traynor, and Mr. Sutherland.
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.