Howard Hughes (wearing hat) receives congratulations from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at Floyd Bennett Airport in Brooklyn. The gentleman wearing a polka dot bow tie, standing behind the mayor is Grover Whalen. Mr. Whalen was president of the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Description given with photo: "Hughes Arrives In New York: La Guardia Field, New York, N.Y. -- Howard Hughes, airplane designer, pilot and movie producer, steps down from his converted B-23 bomber at La Guardia Field following his transcontinental flight from Culver City to New York, the first since he narrowly escaped death in the crash of an experimental plane July 7. Hughes personally piloted the B-23 over the 3,000-mile route."
Description printed on photograph's accompanying sheet of paper: "Howard Hughes and his crew of globe girdlers (L-to-R) Thomas Thurlow, Ed Lund, Albert Lodwick, Hughes, Harry Connor and Dick Stoddart. 8-1-38. (Press Association)." Howard Hughes is standing third from right.