The BT-12 production line inside the Fleetwings plant showing ships #9 thru #14 of a 24 ship order with serials 42-3684 to 3707 allocated. Serials 42-3708 thru 3883, which would have brought the order up to 200, were cancelled when the military decided they preferred the Vultee BT-13. Construction involved the extensive use of stainless steel, including for skin panels. The fuselage structure was made from carbon steel tube with stainless skin panels attached using "Shake-proof Fasteners" (probably what is known as quarter-turn fasteners today). The novelty of the design probably put the military off as being too different for maintenance to cope with.

The Fleetwings Model 36 was a plywood skinned aerial target which was given the military designation PQ-12A. It was powered by a Lycoming O-435 of 225 hp and could be manually flown for testing & evaluation when designated as the YPQ-12A (background). The protrusion hanging down from the right hand wing housed a TV camera that fed images to a mother-ship for remote guidance to intercept an enemy aircraft. In October 1943 the aircraft successfully downed a test drone over the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range by detonating a 500 lb bomb housed under the cockpit fairing. Note that the last two digits of the serial on the tail have been crudely changed from "49" to "45".

More Harvards of No 20 Service Flying Training School. Cranborne sounds like a very English training airfield, doesn't it, but it was in Rhodesia - one of the places where Allied aircrew could train for the war in peace. EX180 later to South African Air Force as 7050. Photo from: Imperial War Museums

Harvards of No 20 Service Flying Training School, based at Cranborne, near Salisbury (now Harare), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The second aircraft is EX375. Harvard IV G-CLCJ is nowadays painted as EX490. Photo from: Imperial War Museums

The RAAF took delivery of ten A-25As before cancelling an order for 140 more having deciding dive bombing was outmoded. A69-29 was one of those affected by the cancellation and was never delivered to Australia. It was eventually handed to the US Marines . Only one RAAF A-25 entered service and that was for testing. The 10 were handed back to the USAAF in 1945. Photo by: Hans Groenhoff / Smithsonian Institution

Operated by 9 Squadron. Written off after a forced landing near Batchelor, Northern Territory in April 1944. Photo from: Townsville City Library

41-7746 was sold in Italy as I-PALU after the war. The back of the photo says it was taken in Italy, with Casablanca pencilled in. The presence of French aircraft discounts Italy. Both C-47s shown were based at Oran Tafaraoui, which was also a base for A-20s, P-39s and P-38s as seen in the background. A photo of P-40s at Casablanca at this time showed arched hangar roofs, not pitched as in the photo and the proximity of the mountains fits Oran better than Casablanca. However this is not a certainty and open to correction. Photo from: National Archives at College Park, Maryland

Ex CF-BMU donated to he RCAF in November 1939. Returned to CF-BMU in April 1945. The colour of this aircraft is not known. Photo taken on orthochromatic film which can make yellow look very dark and red look black. Photo from: Library and Archives Canada

Rollout of Frank Piasecki's PV-2 helicopter. According to the Vertical Flight Society, P-V Engineering Forum started in 1937 Callowhill Street in Philadelphia. A modern building now stands here but this would be the back side of the house, on Shamokin Street. The PV-2 first flew on 11 April 1943. The photo is dated October 1943, presumably in error. Photo by: Thomas McAvoy / Life

One of the 10 DH82C-2 Menasco Moth Is built. They were followed by 125 DH82-C4 Menasco Moth IIs. The use of Menasco engines was in response to a shortage of Gipsy Majors. 4836 was disposed of in 1946. Photo from: Library and Archives Canada

Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

Algy Spurr Collection. Tracers getting a bit close for comfort... Baltimores possibly over Italy.

Photo taken by my father Algy Spurr, in WW2. Italian Co Beligerant Air Force.

Became an instructional airframe in 1944 after two years with operational training units. Photo from: State Library of South Australia

A sad end to a famous aircraft...Following the loss of their Avro X VH-UMF 'Southern Cloud', Australian National Airways Ltd. (ANA) abandoned their interstate services and went into liquidation. C.T.P. Ulm, one of the principals of ANA, purchased Avro X VH-UMI 'Southern Moon' from the liquidators and had it rebuilt in highly modified form for use on route-proving and record-breaking flights. The aircraft was re-registered on 16 June 1933 as VH-UXX Faith in Australia. It's seen here in 1943 in a corner of Townsville/Garbutt aerodrome, rotting away. (CAHS/Stanley Brogden collection)

Beautiful study of Cessna's 'Bamboo Bomber', the aircraft that bomber pilots learned their trade on, although the UC-78 model was a light transport. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

May never have been delivered to the USAF as it was among a batch of 10 sent to Chile in December 1943. Fairchild photo. Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia

On a test flight out of Wichita. Photo from: Civil Aviation Historical Society, Melbourne, Australia

Wartime photo of the airstrip at Mareeba in North Queensland. Built in 1942 as a base for B-17s. This photo likely taken in 1943 when P-38s from the 8th FG, 80th FS were stationed there. The CW-22 in the foreground is probably one of the Dutch aircraft diverted to Australia after the fall of the Dutch East Indies. Wartime Mareeba had two runways and an extensive network of taxiways. One (sealed) runway remains in use today. Photo from: State Library of Queensland

This AT-11 was ordered by the NEI air force and was to have been A-14, but delivered to the Royal Netherlands Military Flying School at Jackson with the serial 42-3070, based on the c/n. To the USAAF, 42-3070 was a B-17. The strange serial is clearly visible on the port side of the nose in another shot. In the background here are P-39 Airacobras in US markings, including 42-18885. Upon the closure of the school in February 1944, the Kansan went to the USAAF, becoming 44-72016. Later PP-CCF with Cruzeiro do Sul; crashed on 15 November 1957. Photo from: Bodo Sandberg collection