Description printed on photograph's accompanying strip of paper: Hughes Buys New Plane. Attendants at the Floyd Bennet Airport, in Brooklyn, New York, inspecting the tire on the plane Howard Hughes recently purchased from the Sikorsky Company. Hughes accepted delivery September 30th, and flew the plane from Bridgeport. The tire blew as he was making a test landing. No other damage was done. Credit Line (ACME) 9/30/37

Date stamped on back of photo: April 3, 1947. Transcribed from attached press release: "HUGHES FLIES DUPLICATE OF CRASH PLANE CULVER CITY, Calif., April 5 -- Howard Hughes, famed flier-industrialist, today test-piloted the plane pictured here, a duplicate of the XF-11 photo-reconnaissance ship which he nearly lost his life in an accident last July 7. He designed and built the plane for the Army Air forces in conjunction with the Air Materiel Command engineers. He has recovered from the injuries sustained last year when the freak propeller trouble dashed the original XF-11 to earth. As usual, he today took personal responsibility for the first test flight of the new plane." The actual flying date is April 4, 1947.

A view of Howard Hughes talking to an unidentified man.