Painted yellow and red with a Hawaiian garland, Aloha was the second and last finisher in the Dole Air Race. Navigator Paul Schluter, a seaman, did a great dead-reckoning job but only got $25 of the $10,000 second prize. Pilot Martin Jensen had hired him through a classified newspaper ad and did warn Schluter that he needed any prize money to pay his debts. One photo shows the reg as NC914, not NX914, but it does not seem to have been worn during the race. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Compass calibration for Woolaroc, the eventual winner of the Dole Air Race. Pilot Art Goebel and navigator William Davis took 26 hours to reach Honolulu. Woolaroc - woods, lake, rock - is the name of the Oklahoma ranch of Frank Phillips, of Phillips Petroleum, who owned the aircraft. It is preserved on the ranch since 1929. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

Situated on an islet in the Oslo Fjord, Oslo's first airport maybe wasn't very practical, but it was surely idyllic! Brand new in the summer of 1936, this Ju 52 was captured by the German army in 1940 and put in Lufthansa service as D-AQUI. Returned to DNL as LN-KAF in 1946. Scrapped, but the wings were used to restore c/n 130714, which later became Lufthansa's vintage Tante Ju 'D-AQUI' - see photo 70519 for details. Photo from: Nasjonalbiblioteket (Norway)

The Ernst Heinkel-designed seaplane owned by Norwegian aviation pioneer Leif Lier. See other picture for more information. Photo year given as 1927. However, the registration is listed as crashed on 15 August 1924. Photo from: Nasjonalbiblioteket (Norway)

The Paris Air Show used to be held indoors. The participation of the Nederlandsche Vliegtuigenfabriek, better known as Fokker, in the 1921 event was very unpopular among the French public. This did not stop Anthony Fokker from displaying the glider on the left, said to have been designed in Germany as a flying bomb, to be towed by a D.VII. This is unconfirmed, however. Note the model plane on top of the glider. Although painted in full KLM colours, the F.III here never flew for KLM. It was handed over to the Hungarian airline, Malért, here in Paris. H-NABA was alphabetically the first entry in the Netherlands register, but CoR number 23. Photo from: Amsterdam City Archives

What a beautiful plane. The flag worn seems to be a variation on the flag of mother company Chargeurs Réunis, which was white with five red stars. Photo from: Aéromaritime

43-49925 delivered in January 1945. Listed with the 405th Fighter Wing, Clark AFB in 1973 and believed to have been supplied to the Khmer Republic before ending up with the Thai navy. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Cool picture of D-20 and D-30 of the Blue Band Escadrille, a display flight. This name, with the English words, was likely unofficial, Blue Band being a margarine brand. Twenty D.VIIs served with the Dutch navy. Note headrests, fitted from 1925. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

After rejecting the three-seat Fokker C.VIII strategic reconnaissance aircraft, the Dutch army air force ordered the two-seat C.IX, a modified C.V. As can be seen here a ventral machine gun could be fitted. The photo date is not known but this is clearly an official portrait of the first machine, 661, taken by the able service photographer at Soesterberg. Only five aircraft were purchased, and employed as target tugs. One more C.IX was delivered to Switzerland. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

The Breese Model 5 was designed for the Dole Air Race. This machine was flown solo by Maj Livingston Irving, who served with the 103rd Aero Squadron in France in 1918 - note the unit's Indian head insignia. Irving crashed the heavy-loaded aircraft on his second take-off attempt. The registration was not worn on race day. Sister aircraft NX914 Aloha was one of only two contenders to reach Hawaii. Photo from: San Diego Air & Space Museum

The only Fairey IIIF to serve in the RCAF, borrowed for trials. Returned to the RAF. Photo by: Stuart Thomson / City of Vancouver Archives

This boxy helicopter was first flown in July 1961, but failed to impress. Photo from: Vertical Flight Society

Designed by Charles Seibel, Cessna's only helicopter looks like it was intended for flying to church on Sunday, but the CH-1 actually broke a world altitude record and the US Army tested it as the YH-41 Seneca. Apparently it had serious technical issues as Cessna tried to buy back the circa 50 examples built and to have the type certificate revoked. Photo from: Vertical Flight Society

The Travel Air 5000 was designed as a small airliner. Ernest Smith succeeded in flying the prototype from Oakland to Hawaii in July 1927, despite crashing into a thorn tree on arrival. One month later the Travel Air 5000 Special, NX869 Woolaroc, won the disastrous Dole Air Race over the same route. Seen here just before take-off, sister aircraft Oklahoma was not successful - pilot Bennett Griffin aborted the race with a technical problem and returned to Oakland. Reg not painted on race day. Photo from: California State Library

The serial of this aircraft, applied only in the data block on the left side of the forward fuselage, could be read off a large scan of this sharp photo. It was more difficult to trace the unit. The 88th Reconnaissance Squadron seems to have operated a mixed bag of planes around 1937, including this early Northrop A-17 (no suffix) - note fixed landing gear. They were based at Hamilton Field, California. The picture was taken at Redding Municipal Airport which must then have been Benton Field. Photo from: California State Library

Opening day of the Grand Central Air Terminal. Parked behind are NC7118 (fleet number 6), NC5577 (4) and probably NC7119 (7). Maddux Air Lines started operations in Sep 1927, and merged into Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) in Nov 1929. Photo by: John Underwood / Glendale Public Library

Only two aircraft made it from California to Hawaii in the tragic Dole Air Race. Seven crashed before or during the race. Miss Doran disappeared in the Pacific without trace, carrying pilot Augy Pedlar, navigator Vilas Knope and the brave passenger, Mildred Doran. There was no radio on board. The name Miss Doran was worn frontally. Photo from: California State Library

A better view of the JOV-3, perhaps flying over the Delaware River near Boulevard Airport, Pennsylvania where the Helicopter Engineering Research Corporation was based. Photo from: Vertical Flight Society

The age of the mono-mailplane! On the right is a Northrop Alpha 4A, NC933Y, with Quality Hill in Kansas City in the background. NC12283 was delivered to TWA in May 1933. In 1935, after an accident, the Babb company rebuilt it, against the manufacturer's advice, with a Lockheed Explorer wing for Wiley Post. The hybrid, NR12283, crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska on 15 August 1935, taking the lives of Post and actor Will Rogers. Photo from: Jackson County Historical Society

'Ramjet helicopter being tested at Lambert Field.' Serial 46-689 is not worn; instead the USAAF contract number is painted on the tailfin. USAAF had just become USAF at this point. Photo by: Arthur Witman / State Historical Society of Missouri