Transcribed from attached press release: "HUGHES READY FOR TAKE-OFF IN SECOND XF-11 FLIGHT. CULVER CITY, Calif., April 5. Howard Hughes, famed flier-industrialist, recovered from injuries following crash last July 7, is shown here just before he test-piloted today a duplicate of the plane in which he nearly lost his life. He designed and built the plane, designated XF-11, and one of the world's fastest photo-reconnaissance ships, for the Army Air Forces in conjunction with the Air Materiel Command engineers."
Description printed on photograph's accompanying sheet of paper: "Howard Hughes being escorted through crowd after delivering an address at the National Press Club on July 21."
The Bob McCaffery Collection on the Save the Hughes Flying Boat Campaign (1980-1983) documents efforts by activists to preserve the plane from destruction and its subsequent acquisition by the Aero Club of Southern California in 1980. The collection contains photographs and newspaper clippings about the Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat nicknamed the "Spruce Goose" from the 1980s.