1935 German Air Rally. Team F1 were from the Reich Air Ministry, in other words, the air force, with seven Ar 66c aircraft. They did not well, ending up in 26th place. Photo from: Life

Ex 43-48189, delivered to the RAF as KG773 in August 1944. To Horton Airways as G-AKLL. To Iberia in 1950. To Spanish air force in 1966. Preserved at Sinsheim, Germany as "D-CADE". Photo from: Martín-Crespo Collection of Tourism

The NY-3 trainer was a NY with a 240-hp Wright R-760 Whirlwind engine. 20 examples were built from 1929 and mainly served with reserve units. The second aircraft is BuNo 9411, a Berliner-Joyce OJ-2 observation aircraft ordered in May 1933. It was based here at NRAB Brooklyn - better known as Floyd Bennett Field - by 1936. It survived until 1941. Only one NY trainer was still reported in service in 1939. Photo from: Life

PH-ALI was the first DC-3 outside the United States, arriving in Rotterdam by ship in October 1936, months before PH-ALH. Although we are not certain, this looks like the scene at Schiphol after the aircraft first arrived there on 13 October, flown by John Scholte. The name Ibis is applied on the nose, but difficult to see. First revenue flight to Paris on 13 November. Served on Indies route until 1939. Was in England on 10 May 1940 and served on BOAC's Bristol - Lisbon route as G-AGBB. Survived two attacks by German fighters, but was shot down over the Bay of Biscay on 1 June 1943. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

First stop in Europe of the Electra World Premiere Flight. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

ILA 1928 was the first aviation exhibition in Germany after the end of WWI, and took place near the current Messe Berlin in three halls closer to the then new Funkturm. L-BAAF was a new A.23 airliner for ČSA. Photo from: KB - National Library of the Netherlands

Spun in at Harewood (now Christchurch/NZCH) on May 15, 1945. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

The fuselage of this aircraft was built in the UK and the rest in New Zealand. Separate c/ns were issued. RNZAF code numbers were not tied to the aircraft serial but to the unit, in this case the 3EFTS. The code was worn on the cowling and under the wings. The serial was on the rear fuselage. NZ756 was sold postwar as ZK-ASN. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

Neutrality markings applied on PH-ALO and PH-ARE Emoe. The third DC-3 is probably PH-ALR Reiger. These three were ferried to Naples, the new European terminus of KLM's East Indies route, on 31 October 1939, getting there via Copenhagen and eastern Germany. They joined six other DC-3s on the Indies route which never returned to Amsterdam after the outbreak of WWII on 3 September. These aircraft were put on the NEI register in June 1940. PH-ALO to PK-ALO, destroyed at Broome by Japanese aircraft on 3 March 1942. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

'New air service China to Burma. First plane has landed in Rangoon.' The registration is slightly speculative but 652 was one of only a handful of CAAC Il-14Ms, and was already in service in 1956. Date of the inaugural flight to Rangoon given as 11 April by MIT researcher Koon-Ho Joseph Tam; the photo source says 23 April. The characters that prefix the reg say CAAC. 652 is preserved in the Shanghai aviation museum. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Swing on landing and written off. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

This DC-2 crashed just west of Halle, Belgium after take-off from Brussels - Haren on a KLM service to Paris on 28 July 1937. All fifteen people on board were killed. The cause of the crash was never established. The photo is thought to have been taken at Schiphol with part of the 1928 terminal in the background. This picture completes KLM's DC-2 fleet in our database. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

One of the Vampires hired by the RNZAF from the RAF for use by 14 Sqn on Cyprus. Retiurned to the RAF and scrapped in 1957. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

D-IKVN was the first prototype of the Storch, although the second, D-IGLI, first flew 14 days earlier on 10 May 1936. The location looks like Schiphol and although this is not entirely certain, we know that a Storch visited Schiphol on Sunday 23 January 1938. It was flown by Fieseler factory pilot Hans Dietrich 'Bubi' Knoetzsch. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

The Ba.44 was an adaption of the licensed DH.89 Dragon Rapide, changed to Italian construction techniques. Five were built for Ala Littoria plus one for Paraguay which, having c/n 4302, may have been the prototype. Here we see c/n 4303, ex MM267, I-AERE and I-ORSO. Sent to Libya, it was used by the air force to transport officials including Governor Balbo. From the fall of 1935 it became an ambulance and it seems to wear officious serial MM4303. By June 1940 it was involved in the invasion of Greece, joining the four others which had also been militarised. 4303 was then assigned MM60426. It crashed near Tirana on 9 March 1941. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Arrival of the first PV Harpoons for the Dutch navy. 19-2 is a serial, not a unit code. It is officially S-2, with the aircraft type designator S written in numerical form, indicating a naval aircraft. The last three digits of BuNo 37217 are worn on the tail. Photo by: Harry Pot / Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Frank Steinman's ambulance plane, named Louis Pasteur. The FAA gives N52906 as c/n 4265, which makes it ex 42-71569. The aircraft is assumed not demobbed until 1945. Steinman was a long-time user of Roosevelt Field, Garden City, Long Island, New York. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

The Br 890 Mercure transport aircraft did not have twin tailbooms, but a swing tail which is open here. This prototype made its first flight on 5 April 1950, powered by Bristol Hercules engines, hence 890H. It was preceded by the Br 892 Mercure prototype, with four smaller Renault 12S (Argus As 411) engines, and the military, twin-engine Br 891 Mars. These aircraft did not enter production, with the French air force selecting the Nord Noratlas. Photo from: Bristol

First flown in January 1934. To D-ALAS. To Luftwaffe in 1939, fate unknown. Photo from: Lufthansa

The W33 D-1167 Bremen managed the first westbound Atlantic crossing in April 1928 with Kohl, Fitzmaurice and owner von Hünefeld. D-1197 Europa set out too, but crashed near Bremen. Note that this is another W33, again named Europa. On 18 September 1928, Swedish pilot Lindner and Hünefeld left Berlin for a flight around the world. They aborted this in Tokyo and this aircraft became J-BAWG in Japan. Photo by: Walter Hahn / SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek