The J-300 was a long-range version of the CH-300 Pacemaker. Repainted in orange and maroon in preparation, NR13137 took off for a non-stop transatlantic flight to Rome on 13 May 1937, but pilots George Pond and Cesare Sabelli came down in Ireland with a broken fuel line. They 'walked into Lahinch almost unobserved and, going to the Commercial Hotel there, booked rooms and went off to bed'. They eventually reached Rome and embarked on a reverse crossing, but crashed the aircraft into the Mynydd Carningli mountain, Wales, on 19 August. Pond and Sabelli were unhurt. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

The Grumman Goose prototype, first flown on 29 May 1937. Delivered to private owners as NX16910 on 3 July and used for commuting to New York. The full type certificate was issued on 29 September and aircraft then became NC16910. Later rebuilt to G-21A. Sold to Aerovías Nacionales de Puerto Rico in 1940. Eventually used by US Corps of Engineers in Canada and reportedly buried at some remote site. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

To be shipped to Java for use by the Nederlands Nieuw Guinea Petroleum Maatschappij (NNGPM). Assembled at Surabaya - Morokrembangan. Delivered to Babo, NNG on 18 January 1940. Destroyed on 2 February 1942 by Japanese attack at 'Dobu', likely Dobo in the Aru Islands. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Operator given as 'New York and Chicago Airways'. Pilot named as Joseph R James. Date approximate. A 22 August 1932 newspaper snippet reports an arrival here: 'New York to Chicago Airways Flamingo with six passengers from Chicago.' Other photos show this plane with titles of United Air Services, which had a hangar here at Floyd Bennett Field. The Golden Years register lists (first) owner as Embry Riddle Co which merged with AVCO in 1929. NC656E had a mishap in Indiana in AVCO service in November 1930. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Rescue helicopter pioneer Cdr Frank Erickson, US Coast Guard, demonstrating a Sikorsky HNS-1, originally ordered as an R-4B, US Army serial 43-46544. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Taken on a fateful date. Unmarked, but one of five L-14s delivered to Air Afrique between December 1939 and June 1940. Headquartered in Algiers, Air Afrique was formed by the French government in 1937 to rationalise air services in France's African colonies. F-ARRF crashed in Mali in 1943. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

The L-14 crewed by Howard Hughes, Harry Connor (co-pilot), Tom Thurlow (navigator), Richard Stoddart (radio operator) and Edward Lund (engineer) returning from their fast flight around the world. Thurlow, Stoddart and Lund were also rated pilots. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Aer Lingus bought two Super Electras in 1939. The outbreak of war left them with few destinations to fly to and both were sold to Australia in 1940, EI-ABV becoming VH-ADW. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Philip Philbin, on the left, established the Air Express Corporation at Denver in the fall of 1932 and from December, it ran a fast air cargo service between New York and Los Angeles. Flights took an average of 17 hours. The company did not last long, folding in March 1933. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Last preparations for a flight around the world by Howard Hughes and crew, in 71 flying hours between 10 and 14 July 1938. The stages were between New York, Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Fairbanks, Minneapolis and New York - too northern a route to qualify for an official record. This Super Electra was shipped to Britain in August 1940 according to the Rudy Arnold files. Apparently bought by the RAF, it crashed in Nairobi as AX688 on 10 November 1940. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Large flying boat, rejected by Pan Am in favour of the Boeing 314. Nicknamed 'Russian Clipper', the sole example was delivered to Leningrad by ship. Re-assembled there by July 1938. The Soviets bought a license to build the type as a bomber, but this came to naught and this prototype, designated PS-30, became CCCP-L2940 in Aeroflot's Far East division to for use on the Khabarovsk - Petropavlovsk route. It was scrapped in July 1946. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Third S-43, the first for Pan Am. Also flew as NX15063 and deliveries to Pan Am were reportedly delayed. To Panair do Brasil subsidiary in 1940 as PP-PBA. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

This New York City Police Department Bell 412 was seen outside the old NYPD Air Operations hangar at Floyd Bennett Field in 1989. This registration (N414PD) was later carried by two other Bell 412s built by the Bell factory in Canada. At the time of uploading in late 2021, this aircraft was owned by the Ultimate Aviation Group in Johannesburg, South Africa which flies 412s on mining and humanity relief contracts in Africa (e.g. ICRC) and also supports seasonal scientific research work in Antarctica.

Aéromaritime received a fourth S-43 for its West African line early in 1938. Later that year the French company also acquired the sole Norwegian S-43, LN-DAG Valkyrien, which became F-AREX. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

In 1940 the Netherlands East Indies airline KNILM opened a Java - Netherlands New Guinea route, via Celebes (Sulawesi) and the Moluccas. Two Grumman G-21A Goose amphibians soon turned out to be too small and two S-43s were ordered of a twin-tailfin variant. A third example was acquired from Hawaiian Airlines. Note the NEI reg with X prefix, which was required by US authorities for pre-delivery test flights. One year later on 26 December 1941, PK-AFT was lost to strafing Zero fighters at Lake Tondano, Sulawesi while apparently operating in support of a Dornier Do 24 unit of the Dutch navy. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Howard Hughes bought this S-43 for his flight around the world but he changed his mind and used a Lockheed 14, NX18973, instead. As well as for pleasure flights, he later used the S-43 to train for flying the Spruce Goose, crashing it at Lake Mead in Nevada on 16 May 1943. Two people were killed, Hughes survived. At that time it wore US Army Corps of Engineers markings and spurious serial 74327. It was not s/n 42-1, which was ex NC16925. Hughes had his flying boat expensively salvaged and rebuilt and N440 still survives, owned by Kermit Weeks. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

The Z.1012 was a three-engined travel aircraft of which a few examples were built with either four or six seats. MM367, the prototype, was assigned to the Italian embassy in Washington. In March 1942 this aircraft was seized by the US authorities at Bolling Field. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Named for the Norse seafarer Leif Erikson, this Loening flew from America to Norway via Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes. Photo must have been taken on 17 July 1935, the day Thor Solberg and Paul Oscanyan set out from New York. Solberg returned as he felt the plane was wrongly loaded and they took off again without any publicity the next day. They finally arrived in Bergen on 16 August. Solberg seems to have believed they were the first to fly from America to Norway, but Jimmie Mattern had flown, unintentionally but non-stop, from New York to Norway in 1933 in his second Lockheed Vega NR869E. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution