This Wal was to be added to Roald Amundsen's aborted North Pole flight with N-24 and N-25 as a gift from Benito Mussolini. This did not go ahead and Mussolini suggested that Antonio Locatelli's crew should fly to the North Pole on their own. Instead, Locatelli left Marina di Pisa on 25 July 1924 for a North Atlantic crossing, more or less joining the US Army Douglas World Cruisers on the final legs of their circumnavigation of the globe. The Wal had to make an emergency landing off Greenland on 21 August. The crew was rescued after four days by the American picket ship USS Richmond. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Delivered in 1925 and used by Roald Amundsen on an aborted North Pole flight. Seen here during trial flights on an Oslo - Kristiansand - Amsterdam - Harwich route. Flew Horten - Kiel - Friedrichshafen later in March 1925 month for resale by Dornier. Flew to New York as D-1422 in 1930 with Wolfgang von Gronau. Transferred to Deutsches Museum Munich in 1932 but damaged beyond repair by bombing in 1944. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

From 1926 the Wal was the mainstay of the Dutch navy's air fleet in the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia. The type was built under licence by Aviolanda in Papendrecht, Holland. Seen here off the fishing village of Volendam, D-21 was one of three to be flown - rather than shipped - to the Far East in April-May 1929. D-22 crashed in Baghdad. Photo from: Jaap de Moor collection

Built in Pisa in 1926 for the Italian air force. Civil registered for the rescue effort following the crash of Umberto Nobile's airship Italia. Photo by: Vilhjelm Riksheim / Perspektivet Museum

On its way north to take part in the rescue effort following the crash of the airship Italia. The Italian air force sent two Wals, registered I-PLIF and I-XAAF, and a Savoia-Marchetti S.55, I-SAAT. Photo from: Haugalandmuseet

This is the military version of the Wal (Whale) with a crew of two to four stationed in an open cockpit near the nose of the hull and a machine gun position in the bow and one or two amidships. The Wal was used by the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. This replica is on dispay in Hangar 1 of the super Museo del Aire at Cuatro Vientos.