Martin 4-0-4 N40439 at San Francisco Mills Field before the new (current) terminal complex was opened to the south in August 1954. The old airline terminal is on the left center in the background. SFO was Mills Field until it became San Francisco International.

Air Rescue Service Catalina from Hamilton Field flying over Marin County, north of San Francisco. Photographed from an Air Force Reserve AT-6C.

Ship #3, operated by the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. Crashed Muntok Bay, Banka Island on 2 Dec 1948.

Taken near the Ferry Building seaplane terminal in San Francisco, with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the background. Bay Valley Air Service was an airline to Sacramento that didn't last very long. Their G-21As are ex Royal Navy JRF-6Bs, with N95431 being ex FP514). This Goose lived on to have a long and varied career. It ended up in Australia in the 1990s and was last noted stored in a hangar at Wangaratta, VIC, in Sep 2016.

Taken with a Kodak 616 Monitor, which was a marvelous camera.

I think this was the most beautiful DC-3 that I ever saw. Unfortunately I don't have it in color. It is ex Wright Cyclone-powered American Airlines DC-3-178 NC16013, later converted to Pratt & Whitney-powered DC-3A and operated by the Mexican Federal Commission for Electricity. The aircraft's name simply means "The Torch".

The S-43 was flown by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. This example served with VJ-1 at San Diego, but crashed about a year after this photo was taken, on 31 Dec 1938.

Attending a large air show and open house that the city of Oakland was sponsoring. You can see some of the crowd in the background. This Junior was manufactured 10 Jun 1931. In 1946/47 it was heavily modified by owner Harold Ladwig for show and exhibition work, to make it look much older than it was. Fabric and all faring were removed from the fuselage, a fake skid added to the nose, rear seat removed, and most amazingly the wing struts were removed and replaced with a kingpost and flying and landing wires. By the 1950s these modifications had been undone. As such this Curtiss Junior was still current by 2021, owned by Harry G. Hansen since 1987.

Transferred to RFC at Kingman 14 Dec 1945.

This camouflaged C-39 (we called it warpaint then) was taken in September 1941. This was close to the end of the red center national insignia use. The aircraft was from the Sacramento Air Depot and was plane number 20 of the 62nd Transport Group which had been activated in December 1940. The serial of the aircraft is not known. For that you would need to walk up close and inspect the data block below the cockpit. A C-39 has a DC-2 fuselage and wings, and a DC-3 tail unit, centre-section and landing gear. Thirty-five C-39s were built.

Ship #3, operated by the Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. Crashed Muntok Bay, Banka Island on 2 Dec 1949.

At the Pan American terminal across the field from the main terminal near the Coast Guard Air Station at San Francisco.

A Lockheed design, built under license in Mexico by Lockheed-Azcárate SA as the LASA-60. They built 44 aircraft, 18 of which were for the Mexican Air Force. The type was also produced under license by Aermacchi in Italy, and by Atlas in South Africa.

The Skyhopper prototype at Culver City, CA in May 1946. That's some "airport" with a lot of other planes in the weeds including the Fairchild PT-19 next to the Skyhopper. This original single-seat version was marketed as the Skyhopper I, but the type name was later changed to Skyhopper 10. It was also listed by the CAA as Salway-Stark.

This Bobcat is from Stockton AAF (the letter K was one of the training field code letters), as indicated by the "Stockton Field" titling below the windscreen. It was written off at La Junta AAF, CO on 27 Feb 1943.

The pilot's name on the plane is Aviation Cadet George H. Carter. The normal complement of a Navy squadron in 1939 was 18 planes, so this is a rare photo.