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.