The dawn of heavier-than-air passenger service across the Atlantic, 28 June 1939. Somewhat embarrassingly the flight had taken four days due to fog at the Botwood, Newfoundland stop. The aircraft carried 19 passengers, twelve crew and 60,000 letters but this was not considered a regular flight, which causes some confusion. On 28 June, NC18605 Dixie Clipper departed New York on the first regular passenger flight, via the 'southern route' to Marseille through the Azores. Yankee was back in NY on 2 July and flew the first regular pax service to Southampton on 8-9 July. She had also made the first mail flights, to Marseille in May and to Southampton in June. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Delivered in January 1938 but retained by Imperial Airways to cover aircraft losses. Finally delivered to QEA in September that year. Operated alongside Imperial's S.30s on the Sydney-Southampton route, with Qantas crews as far as Singapore. Impressed by the RAAF in June 1940 as A18-12. While in RAAF service it crashed on landing at Townsville during a test flight. RMS Queen Mary is the ship in the background. Photo from: Hudson Fysh Collection/State Library of New South Wales

"City of Funchal" served Aquila on schedules to Madeira, Italy and elsewhere between 04.54 and being damaged in a gale at Santa Margherita Ligure near Genoa on September 26, 1956. It was previously RAF NJ201 and G-AGWU.