The Universal (no F designation) was the first type by the Atlantic Fokker company and lacked the cantilever wing of the European Fokkers, but fulfilled the needs of American aviation companies at the time. Aero Corporation of California was a flying school, workshop and regional distributor of Fokker. NC696 was the fourth Universal to pass through Aero and was used for demonstration and charter flights before delivery to Pacific Air Transport. Standard Airlines, active from late 1927, was a subsidiary of Aero. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

now resides at the Western Canada Aviation Museum, Winnipeg (photographer not known)

This aircraft was registered to Western Air Express which owned West Coast Air Transport. It was written off at Love Field, Texas, not long after being sold. The small railroad town Montague was a stop on the airline's Seattle-Oakland service via Portland. There was not a ticket office in Montague, which was noted for its cattle industry. Photo from: Merriam Library, California State Library

Registration cancelled in 1932. Anderson Field was the first airport at Las Vegas. Known as Rockwell Field after a change of ownership. Airport closed by 1930. Western Air Express moved its services to what is now Nellis AFB but was then a private airport owned at one stage by the airline. Photo from: University of Nevada Las Vegas

Operated by MacRobertson Miller Airlines. VH-UJT was sold to a Catholic mission in Papua New Guinea in 1939 and crashed soon afterwards. Photo from: State Library of South Australia

Despite two prominent private customers, Harold Vanderbilt and speedboat magnate Garfield Wood, the six-passenger F-11 flying boat was not very successful. This airframe was tested by the US Army as the YC-16. Here it is seen wearing Western Air Express markings. WAE was affiliated with the American Fokker company and may have considered it for its seaplane service to Catalina Island, but WAE never operated the aircraft. Location thought to be the Teterboro factory airfield. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Aircraft has a rare US letter registration. To NC54 in 1927. US commercial aviation lagged behind Europe and the small Universal is what Colonial Air Transport commenced flying with in 1926 between New York (Hadley Field, NJ) and Boston, carrying mail only. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

The route Los Angeles - San Francisco - Oakland is marked on the fuselage. Photo from: Smithsonian Institution

CF-AJH spent years stored at Canadian Vickers. Sold at the end of 1933. Withdrawn from use in 1936. Photo from: Ken Molson fonds - Ingenium

Crashed Fort St John on December 17, 1939. Photo from: Ken Molson fonds - Ingenium

Crashed while landing The Pas, Manitoba, on January 5, 1928. Photo from: Library and Archives Canada

G-CAHH was one of the seven aircraft that took part in the 1927-28 Hudson Strait Expedition - six Universals and a Moth. The five remaining Universals assembled at Erik Cove at the end of the expedition to prepare to fly to Ottawa. G-CAHH crashed on take off after a float strut failed. It was then decided to dismantle the aircraft and ship them out instead. G-CAHH was cancelled from the register after the accident. Photo from: Library and Archives Canada

Blown out into Hudson Bay on August 26, 1929. after dragging anchor during gale and sank during recovery attempt. Photo from: Library and Archives Canada

Registration cancelled in 1934. The building visible below the engine is Hotel Almendares. Photo from: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Crash of a Fokker F-11A amphibian at McDame Lake in northern British Columbia, see other photo for details and the preserved hull of this aircraft. Photo from: Canada Aviation Museum

This rare flying boat was in storage at the Aviodrome. Only six F.11s were built, and this is the only surviving example. Built in 1930, it was first operated by Air Ferries in San Francisco as NC399N, later by Gorst Air Transport in Seattle. Registered as CF-AUV on 1 Jul 1933 and crashed on take-off from McDame Lake, BC, Canada on 13 July 1935, when it struck trees after a limited take-off run. The wreck was salvaged and later acquired by the Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg (now the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada). In 1992 it was loaned to the Aviodome, now the Aviodrome.

This is the real VH-UTO, destroyed in a hangar fire on 28 February 1939. The "VH-UTO" preserved at Hamilton, Victoria is in fact a Fokker F.XI, restored as a replica of the real VH-UTO. Photo from: Kevin O'Reilly.

At the short-lived Alhambra airport near LA, which cost WAE $2 million to develop according to the press. The terminal was inaugurated in April 1930 and airline operations already ceased one year later. According to ASN this F.10 crashed here on 22 December 1930. Photo from: Smithsonian Institution

With this Fokker Universal, Bert Acosta and Emile Burgin intended to retake the world endurance record which Clarence Chamberlin and Acosta had held briefly earlier in 1927. The attempt either did not happen or failed. The Splitdorf was reported wanted by the sheriff of Bergen County, New Jersey, in early 1928, and Connecticut suspended 'bad boy' B B Acosta's pilot licence, allegedly for trying to fly under a bridge. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

Western Air Express was the launch customer for the Fokker F.10, an enlarged F.VII (Roman numerals done away with for the American Fokker types). Fleet number painted as 'No 105' underneath tailplane. Photo by: G Haven Bishop / The Huntington Library