Hughes' aircraft (the XF-11) sitting on the tarmac before its first test flight. Image taken in Culver City, California in April of 1947. "Hughes Aircraft" stamped on the back of the image.
The Hughes Laboratory machine shop is devoted to the building of full-scale test models of rock bits, tool and joints and other drilling tools for laboratory and field testing. In connection with the latter, the shop is equipped to manufacture these tools in sufficient quantities to make possible extensive and simultaneous field trials. The machine shop handles a large amount of work for the Research, Product and Metallurgical Engineering departments. This includes building new designs, new mechanisms and new devices for preliminary testing.
Description printed on photograph's accompanying sheet of paper: "Group at [Gover] Whalen's home 7/14/38. (Daily News)." Howard Hughes is standing third from the left.