Howard Hughes bought this S-43 for his flight around the world but he changed his mind and used a Lockheed 14, NX18973, instead. As well as for pleasure flights, he later used the S-43 to train for flying the Spruce Goose, crashing it at Lake Mead in Nevada on 16 May 1943. Two people were killed, Hughes survived. At that time it wore US Army Corps of Engineers markings and spurious serial 74327. It was not s/n 42-1, which was ex NC16925. Hughes had his flying boat expensively salvaged and rebuilt and N440 still survives, owned by Kermit Weeks. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution