Built in 1930. Shipped to Europe for a tour of the Mediterranean by American socialite Margery Durant, December 1931 to May 1932. The pilot was Charles LaJotte. Aircraft was painted blue according to glass-plate slides which were hand-coloured early on. To Sweden as SE-EKN in 1934 for a Stockholm - Gothenburg service. Bought by the Basque government in 1936 and flown to Bilbao via Groningen and Amsterdam to be used in Spanish Civil War on Republican side, but shot down by a Republican Polikarpov I-15 on 30 July 1937, lacking Republican markings. Photo from: Bibliothèque nationale de France - Gallica

Colonial Western Airways operated the Sikorsky S-38 between Albany and Cleveland. In 1928 it became a division of the Colonial Airways Corporation holding, together with Colonial Air Transport and Canadian Colonial Airways, but all three airlines continued to operate under their own names. Colonial Western was fully merged into American Airways in March 1931. That same month this amphibian was used for rescue work following the sinking of an old sealing ship, SS Viking, off the Horse Islands, Newfoundland, during a movie shoot. The famous Bernt Balchen piloted the aircraft after speeding to Boston by train. Photo by: Leslie Jones / Boston Public Library

Ex NC15V. Owned by Francis 'Frank' Francis, heir to the Standard Oil fortune, olympic athlete, pilot, night club owner and co-inventor of the ejection seat. Arrived in the UK in 1932 and re-registered G-ABYS in August. Based at estate in Gland on Lake Geneva. To F-AOUC in 1936, registered to the Chargeurs Réunis company. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

Panagra photo. Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia