The black and white view of radio operators assisting Howard Hughes on his flight. Text printed on accompanying paper strip: "Keeping in touch with Hughes' flight. L to R: Standing -- Charles Perrine and Al Lodwick. Seated are radio operators Gordon Gregory and Gus Kovatz. 7/13/38 Press Association."
Description printed on photograph's accompanying strip of paper: "Howard Hughes landing at Fairbanks 8:18 p.m. after flight from Moscow in 12 hrs., 17 mins. - distance 2457 mi. Distance flown from New York: 11, 188 mi. Elapsed time from New York, 72 hrs., 58 min. Flight time, 54 hrs., 39 min."
Transcribed from attached press release: HUGHES TOOL COMPANY Cornerstone of the industrial empire of Howard Hughes is the Hughes Tool Company of Houston, Texas, which last year produced more than half a million rock bits for drilling the kind of deep wells now producing 90 per cent of the world's petroleum. In the company's mechanical testing section (above) engineers test the products under conditions simulating actual drilling. Howard Hughes' father's invention of the rock bit is believed to be one of the most important industrial developments of the century; without such a tool we might still be living in a horse and buggy era."
Howard Hughes shakes hands with a young fan, probably after the Senate War Investigating Committee hearings in Washington, D.C., August 1947. Two police officers and a woman onlooker stand nearby.