The GL-32 was a fighter that saw service in the French air force and navy from 1925. This early example was used for aerobatic displays by Marcel Bapt. Registered as F-AJHV in 1929, it was transferred to his name in 1933. In 1936, the Basque government ordered new GL-32s for use as dive-bombers in the Spanish Civil War, but also bought some old ones including F-AJHV. Photo from: FelixArchief

Erroneously called the Curtiss-Ireland Meteor on account of its predecessor, the Comet, using Curtiss Oriole fuselages. Power is a Curtiss OX-5 V8. VH-UFQ was the only Meteor to be registered in Australia. It crashed at Sydney airport, then called Mascot aerodrome, on January 17, 1931. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

This the first Skybaby built by brothers William, Jack and Alan Clancy in 1931. The design was popular and several others were built in Australia and elsewhere the 1930s. None of these ultralight aircraft were placed on the Australian register at the time. In 1997 a Skybaby was registered, initially as a recreational aircraft, and then in 2010, as VH-UMH. At time of upload it remained the only one to be registered in Australia. An American-built one is part of the Powerhouse Museum collection after being donated by the EAA in Milwaukee. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

As 42-5682, this early C-47 (no suffix) was already in Algeria in 1943. She dropped paratroopers over Sainte-Mère-Église on D-Day. To SE-AYL. To Air Atlas in 1949. This company merged into Air Maroc, the predecessor of Royal Air Maroc, in 1953 but the aircraft still wears dual titles here on 23 October 1956. The previous day, it was bringing leaders of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) to a meeting in Tunis, but was intercepted by French aircraft and forced to land in Algiers. Aircraft returned, to RAM and Moroccan air force. Photo by: Guy Defives-Choupin / ECPAD

VH-UMR was part of the first Central Australian Gold Expedition in search of Lasseter's Reef, which was a rich vein of gold that Harold Lasseter claimed to have found in the desert. No gold was found and Lasseter would perish alone in the desert after the rest of the expedition quit the search. The photo of VH-UMR may be at Alice Springs Townsite aerodrome or at Ilbpilla Soak, the advanced search base, where it crashed on August 9, 1930. Repaired, UMR was sold in New Zealand in 1934 as ZK-ADF. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

A wonderful view of old Le Bourget from a landing plane - try this with a 1920s camera! KLM had their own tiny offices in Building 5. The five concrete hangars were built in 1921 and 1922 by architect Henri Lossier. They were partly destroyed in 1944, but rebuilt. They are still in use, and are fortunately listed monuments. F-AEGP is a Farman Goliath which crashed on 10 March 1927. Bottom left is almost certainly F-AIFE which was registered in August 1926, so this view is very much what Lindbergh saw when he arrived here from New York. Photo by: Jacques Hersleven / Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage - KIK-IRPA

Converted to an U.21A drone for use at the Woomera rocket range. Crashed at Woomera on February 14, 1969. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

Acquired by Qantas as a Bristol F2B in 1923, it had been in service a short period when it crashed, The airline rebuilt it as a Tourer and used it as an aerial ambulance, G-AUEB was sold in 1927 and ended up in Paua New Guinea where it crashed on April 17, 1928. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

Edward, the Prince of Wales has arrived for the funeral of King Albert I of Belgium. Photo by: Jacques Hersleven / Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage - KIK-IRPA

The library says this photo is at Bathurst, NSW. But Bathurst did not have an aerodrome until 1938 while the photo is 1930. Tail number means an aerial derby but there are no reports of one of these well-publicised events at Bathurst. It got down to two events - the 1930 aero club aerial derby at Hargrave Air Park in September 1930 or an air pageant at Mascot (now Sydney) airport in November 1930. Study of the background and other photos of the event and from that era, this is Mascot airport. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

Delivered to Brussels on 18 March 1947. As OO-ADN, this one was destroyed by a Katangese Fouga Magister on the ground at Elisabethville (Lubumbashi) in 1961. The breakaway Katangese were attacking United Nations aircraft. This DC-4 was being operated by Air Katanga though. Photo by: Daan Noske / Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

'Finnliner' over San Diego. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

A4-28 was a pre-World War II delivery to the RAAF as a general reconnaissance aircraft. Soon after the war started, the RAAF replaced Ansons in this role with Lockheed Hudsons. A4-28 was transferred to training units where it was joined by the 1000 Ansons shipped to Australia as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. It was scrapped after the war. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

A very rare photo from the time that the well-known sole survivor of the Budd Conestoga at the Pima Air and Space Museum was still operational. This photo shows that this aircraft was in fact XB-QUZ, and not XB-DUZ as widely reported. As can be seen in this photo, the 'Q' was unusually square in shape. By the time this aircraft arrived at Pima in 1978, the registration had faded considerably, with the tail of the 'Q' almost entirely gone. The fading and the square shape made the registration appear to read as XB-DUZ. It's also worth noting that XB-DUZ was registered as a Vultee at the same time that XB-QUZ was issued to this Conestoga. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Albert Fortescue developed an autogyro in Sydney in 1909-12. Test hops were made from Bonnie Doon golf course near his Arncliffe factory. Fortescue patented his design in several countries. In 1924 he put his rotor on a surplus Avro 504 fuselage to make the aircraft seen at the bridge opening. In Spain, Juan de la Cierva had developed an almost identical aircraft. Fortescue alleged patent breach but his patents had expired a few weeks before Cierva lodged his. Cierva has since been credited as the inventor of the autogyro. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

The first aircraft to land at Port Macquarie. It used the then golf course which has since closed and been partly built over. Later in 1921, E3745 adopted its Australian air force serial of A3-28. It crashed at RAAF Port Cook on March 25, 1925. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

The first of three CV-340s for PAL. In the foreground is an United Air Lines machine. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

This photo is difficult to date - this aircraft's livery remained almost unchanged during its career of some 25 years with Delta. However, the nose was painted blue in 1991 at the latest. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Visiting from the HMS Indefatigable in the immediate post-World War II months. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

Built in 1981, delivered to USCG in 1983. Stored in 1995. Returned to service in 1999 but photo probably taken duren the earlier period. Became a HU-25D at some point. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum