The Howard Hughes Public Relations Photograph Collection depicts the activities of businessman Howard Hughes from 1930 to 1950. The photographs primarily depict aircraft flown by Hughes or designed by the Hughes Aircraft Company, including the XF-11 reconnaissance plane, the HK-1 Hercules (or "Spruce Goose"), and the Hughes H-1 Racer. The photographs also depict celebrations following Hughes's circumnavigation flight in New York City, New York and Chicago, Illinois in 1938. Lastly, the photographs include Hughes testifying in front of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program in 1947.
Howard Hughes (second from left) standing in front of the experimental helicopter XH-17, Flying Crane, with others (from left to right): Rea Hopper, Director of the Aeronautical Division, Hughes Aircraft Company; Hughes; Clyde Jones, Director of Engineering, Hughes Tool Company Aeronautical Division; Warren Reed, Assistant; Colonel Carl E. Jackson from Air Research and Development Headquarters, Baltimore; Gale J. Moore, Pilot; possibly Chal Bowen, Flight Engineer/Co-pilot, and an unidentified man, on October 23, 1952.
39 x 62 cm. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Prime meridian: Greenwich and Washington. Hand colored. Shows natural features, populated places, routes of mail steamships, routes of explorers, locations of Indian tribes, railroad routes, and proposed railroad routes. In top margin: No. 80-81. On verso: New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Dakota (statistics and other information) and The state of California (statistics and other information). Original publisher: G.W. and C.B. Colton.
Howard Hughes sits in the cockpit of the XF-11, a reconnaissance plane that Hughes built and designed in conjunction with Air Materiel Command engineers. Hughes is preparing for his first test flight in Culver City, California July 7, 1947.