Description given with photo: "Poised For Trial Run, San Pedro, Calif.: Two engineers are dwarfed by the four right wing engines of Howard Hughes' mammoth plywood flying boat as the 200-tom craft is readied for taxi tests in Los Angeles harbor on November 1st. While completing taxi runs on the following day, Hughes casually lifted the big plane into the air for an unscheduled half-mile flight. Credit Line (ACME) 11/04/47."
Howard Hughes speaks into two microphones as he gives a news conference beside the Douglas DC-3, after landing in New York. This was his first flight after the nearly fatal crash of the first XF-11. A number of officials and onlookers stand nearby.
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."