Starboard view of the Fleetster prototype at the time of its first flight. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

The photo shows that the Fleetster prototype was delivered to NYRBA Line as a floatplane. It had an accident in Miami on 16 March 1930, a week after this picture was taken. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

The Fleetster prototype in its first guise. Photo dated one day after first flight. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

In the early 1930s there was not so much light between a small airliner, a high-end private plane, and a combat aircraft. The Consolidated 18 was a dive-bomber variant of the Fleetster with a new metal wing and an internal bomb bay. The sole example was delivered to NAS Anacostia as the XBY-1 on 26 September 1932. Apparently it was not repaired following a landing accident at NAS Norfolk on 13 April 1933.

The third Fleetster is listed as sold to WWI aviator Frederick Trubee Davison, who was then the Assistant Secretary of War for Air. It was militarized as the Y1C-11, 31-380. It was later rebuilt to Model 17-2 standard with a six-seat cabin as the C-11A. It was photographed at Dearborn by the party of the Lockheed 8A Sirius NR115W Justice for Hungary which flew across the Atlantic in July 1931. Photo from: Jenőné Czapáry / Fortepan

The Model 20 was a parasol wing variant of the Fleetster. This Western Canada Airways aircraft crashed into a hangar at Calgary on 16 November 1931. Photo from: Consolidated / Gerald Balzer collection

The Fleetster prototype in a demonstrator livery, with an NX reg. This should be a later shot than our photo of NC657M. Apparently the plane was returned to the manufacturer after the demise of NYRBA Line in September 1930. Photo from: Consolidated / Gerald Balzer collection

The Fleetster was designed for use within South America by NYRBA Line, a forgotten competitor to Pan Am in which Consolidated's Reuben Fleet held an interest. The Fleetster would fly through the night with evening mail to catch up with the diurnal NYRBA flying boat at its night stop. Pan Am's powerful backers deprived NYRBA of a US Post Office contract. NYRBA could not survive and NC657M was returned to the factory. The factory airfield was north of Buffalo. Photo from: Consolidated / Gerald Balzer collection

The US Army bought four Fleetsters as VIP transports, one Model 17-1 as the Y1C-11 and three Model 17-2s as Y1C-22s. The fresh C-22 designation was assigned even though the older aircraft was upgraded to much the same standard as the C-11A. Photo from: US Air Force

Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia