the first delivery was made to howard hughes. he bought one boeing 307 to fly around the world. he wanted to do it faster than he did before. hughes' boeing stratoliner had more fuel tanks. it was ready to go, but then nazi germany invaded poland on september 1, 1939, so howard hughes did not make his flight. this 307 had its extra fuel tanks taken off. it also had more powerful engines added. it was supposed to be a "flying penthouse" for hughes, but it was not used a lot. it was eventually sold.