Howard Hughes at 1:40 P.M. on the blustery Sunday afternoon of Nov. 2 lifted his big eight-engine flying boat off the water of Los Angeles harbor after two brief taxi runs and let it fly for a tulle before setting down directly abeam newsreel and newspaper cameramen crowding the deck of showman Earl Carroll's yacht "Vanities".
The flying boat was airborne at an indicated speed of 80 mph. and at a weight of 276,000 of a designed gross of "in excess of 400,000 lb. It carried 2,000 gallons of fuel in its 14,000 gal. tanks. During its brief off-and-on hop air speed rose to 94 mph. Within the space of three hours Hughes gave the aircraft industry it first practical "fix" for evaluating, in cost and performance, all paper projections of massive aircraft. He crossed out in quick succession critical questions raised against the world's biggest plane.
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Aviation Week | November 10, 1947
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