Pan American's Stratocruisers plied the route to Australia until replaced by the Boeing 707s. And a little beyond. For a short time Stratocruisers continued to operate to Sydney via Auckland due to airport limitations in New Zealand. The Auckland-Sydney leg was dropped and DC-7Cs replaced the Strats until a new Auckland airport was completed. N1023V was written off at Manila on June 2, 1958. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

PD328 was used for several long distance flights starting in 1944 initially in standard Lancaster configuration. It was modified along the lines of a Lancastrian for a series of polar flights. Its last epic journey was to New Zealand and Australia in 1946. In 1948 Aries was scrapped. Photo from: National Library of Australia

VH-UQT was seen to spin in to a mangrove swamp while on a training flight from Mascot airport (YSSY). The instructor, Buster Brown, became trapped under the water and died. The student, an RAAF cadet, survived. Brown was the brother-in-law of Edgar Percival, of Percival Aircraft fame. -UQT was technically impressed into the RAAF as A7-119 just before the accident but this may have been a case of the paperwork running well behind events. UQT does not appear to have served in the RAAF. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

Later VH-UGY. Registration lapsed in 1944. Photo from: State Library of Victoria

Sold to the Thai air force in 1953. It had operated mainly in Papua New Guinea while in Qantas service. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

Crashed at Orange, New South Wales, when it stalled on takeoff. The pilot and passengers escaped unhurt but VH-AOL was destroyed by the ensuing fire. Photo from: State Library of Victoria

Ex USAAF C-54G 45-606, converted by Douglas to civil C54G-DC in 1947 (conversion #79) and delivered to Pan Am in May 1947. Returned to the USAF in 1954 as 45-606. Broken up at Davis-Monthan in 1973. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

Used on the Perth-Adelaide route. Reregistered VH-FDB in 1948 when then owner the Royal Flying Doctor Service brought its fleet into the VH-FD* registration block. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

L5471 served the RAAF in a training role until 1944 when it was scrapped. Battles retained their RAF serials despite being allocated the RAAF prefix A22-. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

The BT-12 was built of steel sheeting on a tubular frame. Fleetwings argued that spot-welding steel was quicker than riveting aluminium and easier to maintain and, at the same time, that the use of steel saved aluminium. This airframe wears no readable serial but it can only be the XBT-12 prototype, first flown in 1939, which Rudy Arnold also photographed on the ground on 1 May 1941 at Wright Field. It took the company until 1942 to build one more aircraft against an order for 176. 23 were completed in 1943 before the project was cancelled. Not everything got done fast during WWII! Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

G-ALAL operated the inaugural BOAC Constellation service to Sydney in December 1948 and would become a frequent visitor to Sydney on the joint BOAC-Qantas service. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

One of the C-54s acquired by KLM in 1945, and operated as military aircraft for some time. This aircraft was standing together with a DC-4 in full KLM colours which is almost certainly PH-TAR, not yet named. NL-313 was delivered to KLM at the end of 1945 and was registered in the Dutch Civilian Register on 8 January 1946 as PH-TAO but not painted on. NL-313 flew Amsterdam-New York on 27/29 March 1946. It then returned to Amsterdam. Another flight on 13/14 April 1946 continued on to Santa Monica. It then went to Glenn L. Martin, Baltimore, for conversion to seat 42 passengers. It was re-registered PJ-ALK and arrived on 2 November 1946 in Curacao. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Instiution

Lockheed Lodestars and Hudsons, and a Douglas Boston waiting to be shipped to Britain. L-18s G-AGBW and G-AGBX were registered on 6 March 1941 and delivered to BOAC in April. AGBW crashed near Nairobi on a flight from Cairo to Salibury (Harare) on 29 November 1944. All eleven people on board perished. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

The first prototype SB2C. The type had a very troubled development phase and it was said that SB2C stood for 'Son-of-a-Bitch 2nd Class'. This prototype crashed on 18 February 1941, less than two months after its first flight. The photo must have been taken between October 1941, when it had been rebuilt with a longer nose and an enlarged tailfin, and 21 December when it crashed again. Eventually 7000 examples were built but they were never liked and the problems contributed to the demise of Curtiss. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Reregistered VH-EAI in June 1947. Operated by Qantas but owned by BOAC. Photo from: National Library of Australia

Crashed at Liverpool, New South Wales, on December 19, 1954. Photo from: State Library of Victoria

Later VH-UIH. Destroyed by fire at Kelso, New South Wales on September 14, 1935. Photo from: State Library of Victoria

An early publicity photo of the new Wirraway. Photo from: State Library of New South Wales

It looks rather crude but the Blériot 110, designed by Italian engineer Filippo Zappata, broke several world records including a point-to point distance of 9105 km (5657 miles) flown from New York to Lebanon in August 1933. It had a span of 26.50 m (86 ft 11 in) and could carry 6000 litres of fuel near the centre of gravity forward of the two crew. The sole example was named Joseph Le Brix after the recently deceased long-range aviator in January 1932. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Powered by Jumo diesel engines. Briefly used by Lufthansa in 1935, then to DVS school. Supposedly sold to Syndicato Condor, but aircraft was in Germany in 1944. Junkers claimed the diesels reduced hourly fuel consumption from 700 lb to 440 lb. However, the empty weight of the aircraft was no less than 789 kg (1739 lb) higher. The floats fitted here added another 544 kg (1200 lb). Also seen here at the 1934 Paris Air Show are Fieseler Fi 97 D-IPUS and Hawker 'Indermediate' Fury G-ABSE. Photo from: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe