'ATC Douglas C-54 at Georgetown, British Guyana. This plane carried the press party on the goodwill flight to Montevideo, Uruguay.' 'The Air Transport Command' titles. The badge on the nose says both 'Continentinental Division, ATC' and 'MAT - Military Air Transport.' ATC became Military Air Transport Service (MATS) a little later. The airfield was then a US base, Atkinson Field, and turned over to the British in 1949. Photo by: James Evans / National Archives at College Park, Maryland

Withdrawn from use in 1964 and later scrapped. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

'P-80 'mother' plane carrying special electronic equipment to enable the pilot, 1stLt W J McCauley, to operate another pilotless 'drone' P-80.' This must have been experimental as there were only three such drones. The designation (D)P-80 changed to (D)F-80 as per 1948. From 1951, newly converted QF-80 target drones were directed from two-seat DT-33s, so Lt McCauley's task was probably too demanding. Photo by: James Evans / National Archives at College Park, Maryland

From a batch built as convertible bomber / tankers. Retired in 1965 and scrapped. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

Famous as the first aircraft to land at the South Pole on October 31, 1956. Now preserved at the Smithsonian. The aircraft of Operation Deep Freeze II were gathered at Wigram for the the long flight to McMurdo. Nearby Christchurch International later became the base for US flights to Antarctica and remains so today. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

Sold to the Mexican air force in 1988. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

122465 was tragically destroyed with the loss of four lives when it crashed on approach to McMurdo on October 18, 1956. Poor weather closed in on the ice runway when the aircraft was past the point of no return to New Zealand. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

The RWD-6 was designed for the 1932 Challenge International de Tourisme. SP-AHL took ninth place. Of the other two examples built, SP-AHM had crashed during a test flight. SP-AHN won the Challenge, but fatally crashed two weeks later. SP-AHL was then strengthened as the RWD-6bis, with the single wing struts replaced by V struts, as seen here. Note the Mickey Mouse artwork on the tailfin. During 1934 the aircraft was scrapped and parts were used in the RWD-13 prototype. RWD were based near Okęcie airport, apparently across a railway line. The large airport building included a military headquarters and a water tower. Photo from: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

USN aircraft were gathered at Wigram prior to their deployment by air to McMurdo, Antarctica during Operation Deep Freeze II. 56505 returned to regular USN service before being sold in the civil market. Now displayed in its original USAF livery and serial, at Travis AFB. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

An RWD-6, SP-AHN, had won the 1932 Challenge International de Tourisme. The RWD-9, developed from the RWD-6, did even better in the 1934 edition of the event, with three Polish examples taking the first, second and seventh places, and a Czechoslovak RWD-9 the eighth place. SP-DRF, piloted by Tadeusz Karpiński, did not complete the event's 9537.4 km rally around Europe. Note: this is an RWD-9S with the Polish Skoda GR-760 engine, while SP-DRB / 76 was an RWD-9W with a Walter Bora engine. One source mistakenly has this the other way around. Photo from: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

Photographed in flight over Hajdúszoboszló in eastern Hungary. The star roundel on the tail is possibly associated with the Magyar Honvéd Sportszövetség, the Hungarian Defence Sports Association. The Yak UT trainer first flew in 1937 as the Ya-20 according to Bill Gunston. 7243 examples were built. Some were supplied to Poland and Hungary after WWII. Photo from: Fortepan

The Zlin Z-381, the Czechoslovak-built Bücker Bestmann, went by the name Fecske (Swallow) in Hungarian miilitary and paramilitary service. Avia-info.hu suggests that six airframes, HA-BUA through HA-BUF, were delivered directly to Magyar Honvéd Sportszövetség, the Hungarian Defence Sports Association, in 1949. Others were later transferred from the Hungarian air force, such as HA-BUL / 208 (c/n 251, ex I-201) and HA-BUM / 209 (c/n 252, ex I-202). This formation was pictured over Hajdúszoboszló in eastern Hungary. Photo from: Fortepan

The Ca.87 Polonia was a Ca.73ter (or Ca.82) bomber donated to Poland by Caproni and rebuilt for a transatlantic flight. It got four engines and it was made more floatable. Following its first flight on 15 June 1929, it was flown from Italy to Ireland, but there were engine problems and the transatlantic flight never happened. The aircraft was returned to Caproni. This photo was printed in Milan, but we're not sure if this is Caproni's Taliedo plant or the Vizzola factory, now the Volandia museum. Photo from: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

'Pilot Lt G Stefanesco in the Nieuport Delage-NiD.72C1' during the 'Little Entente and Poland air rally'. Three examples of the French NiD.72 fighter were delivered to Belgium, four to Brazil and three, apparently, to Romania. Note construction number 1 - this would be the first production aircraft. C1 just stood for single-seat fighter. The Little Entente was a military alliance between Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. Photo from: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

The third Noratlas, N.2501 No 02 - the first was the N.2500 prototype with Gnome-Rhône engines. This aircraft crashed at an airshow at Lyon - Bron on 6 July 1952. The six people on board lost their lives. Among them was Maryse Bastié - see photo 352184. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

The second Fokker F.25 airframe on display at the National Aviation Day for the Youth. We were suspicious of the 1954 date as the F.25 air taxi was a long dead project by then, but PH-NDP was indeed still around with Fokker. The Fokker S.12 on the right must be PH-NDC, which was used for boundary layer suction experiments. The closest DC-3 is PH-TDV, which was registered as such until 5 May 1954. Photo by: Wim van Rossem / Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

'Mounting Juliana Peak.' The Dutch sent an expedition into the remote Star Mountains in then Netherlands New Guinea in 1959. Expedition members were the first to reach the summit of Puncak Mandala, then named Julianatop, at 4760 m (15,617 ft). The expedition used two AB.47Gs, operated by Schreiner Aero Contractors, but the high altitudes 'severely limited their effectiveness'. PH-HEO crashed in July. PH-HEN survived and was still current as F-BNPP at the time of uploading. Photo from: Nationaal Archief (Netherlands)

Airframe sold to Indonesia in 1981. Preserved as a gate guard at Surabaya - Juanda. Photo from: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie

Oeffag (Oesterreichische Flugzeugfabrik AG) delivered 32 C.II aircraft, serialled 52.01 through 52.32, to the Austro-Hungarian army air force in 1916. A second series of 32 somewhat improved aircraft, 52.50 through 52.81, followed from February 1917, but the C.II had numerous deficiencies and began to be withdrawn from the front in the summer of 1917, to be used for training. Better known for producing Albatros fighters, the Oeffag factory was located here at Wiener Strasse airfield, now LOAN. Today Diamond builds aircraft here. Photo from: Fortepan

Used for war bonds tours of Australia and New Zealand. Famous for being flown under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on October 22, 1943. Ran off runway on landing at Evans Head on October 26, 1943 sustaining severe damage, but was repaired. Later used to train Qantas Lancastrian pilots. Scrapped in 1948 after the RAAF decided to preserve its other Lancaster, W4783 (A66-2), because unlike Queenie, it was a combat veteran. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand