Transcribed from press release attached to back of photo: "NEW PHOTO PLANE TEST-FLOWN CULVER CITY, California, July 7 -- Howard Hughes, who designed and built the new FX-11 reconnaissance plane in conjunction with Air Materiel Command engineers, sits in the pilot's bubble-glass canopy preparing for the first test flight. One of the world's fastest long-range photo planes, the XF-11 can attain a speed of more than 400 miles per hour, Army officials said. It is powered by two 3000-horsepower radial engines with eight-bladed contra-rotating propellers. Outstanding features include a full-span flap, unique eight-camera layout, and exceptionally fast take-off." Transcribed from photo sleeve: "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.

Howard Hughes (second from left) standing in front of the experimental helicopter XH-17, Flying Crane, with others (from left to right): Rea Hopper, Director of the Aeronautical Division, Hughes Aircraft Company; Hughes; Clyde Jones, Director of Engineering, Hughes Tool Company Aeronautical Division; Warren Reed, Assistant; Colonel Carl E. Jackson from Air Research and Development Headquarters, Baltimore; Gale J. Moore, Pilot; possibly Chal Bowen, Flight Engineer/Co-pilot, and an unidentified man, on October 23, 1952.

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."