Built in 1934 and registered NR2111 on 28 August 1935 in time for the Bendix Intercontinental Race, in which it placed 3rd. Bought by Continental Airlines on 24 July 1942 for use as an executive aircraft. Sold once more to the U.S. Army Engineers on 26 October 1942 as a support aircraft on the wartime Canol oil pipeline construction project. Final fate unknown. The print has a photo-lab date stamp of 'Sep 11 1935' and was taken by William H Engle who later became Chief Test Pilot for the Fleetwing Sophomore (Photo ID: 40876). Photo from: William Engle (son of the photographer) via Tim Martin

The first Northrop Gamma, first flown on 3 December 1932. Sold to Texaco for $40,000. As NX12265 Sky Chief flown from Los Angeles to New York in 13 hours and 27 minutes by Frank Hawks. Sold to motorboat builder Gar Wood of Detroit on 21 August 1934. Pilot Joe Jacobson bailed out before NR12265 Kinjockety III exploded over Kansas during the 1936 NY to LA Bendix race. The gas tank stood hazardously close to DET until the 1960s. Photo from: Wayne State University

A two seat version of the Gamma 2A, the Polar Star attempted the world's first trans-Antarctic flight on November 23, 1935. Explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and Canadian pilot Herbert Hollick-Kenyon left Dundee Island for Little America station but ran out of fuel on the last leg of the journey 25 miles short of Little America. They walked that last distance and settled in the abandoned camp until rescued two months later. The airplane was later recovered and donated to the Smithsonian.

Light bomber variant of the Gamma mailplane, the first example of a number assembled by the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO) in Hangzhou - Jianqiao (Chien Chiao) for Chiang Kai-shek's air force. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum