?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(AVIATION) A selection of 16 photographs documenting the 1930s aviation pursuits of Howard Hughes. The images document Hughes as he began his historic flight to pursue a round-the-world speed record, his arrival in New Jersey after shattering the cross-country speed record, his plane in air, landing at various airports, and more. Silver press prints, the images measuring approximately 6 1/2x8 1/2 inches (16.5x21.6 cm.), and the reverse, all but two sheets slightly larger, all but two with mimeographed labels with the date, each with a N.E.A. stamp and many with an Acme Newspictures stamp, and all with numeric notations in pencil, on verso. 1934 and 1937-38
The business magnate, pilot, engineer, and film producer is today known for his eccentric and reclusive lifestyle, but was in his lifetime immensely influential. A lifelong aircraft enthusiast, Hughes formed his Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932 and acquired and expanded TWA and Air West, which he renamed Hughes Airwest. He spent the rest of the 1930s and much of the 1940s setting multiple records and building planes, including the H-4 Hercules, which was the largest flying boat in history. He also commissioned the Hughes H-1 Racer, in which he set the landplane airspeed record of 352 mph on his test course in California. He then set a round-the-world flight record on July 14, 1938 (91 hours, flying a Lockheed 14 Super Electra). He survived four plane crashes.
