'Inaugurating helicopter shuttle service for air mail between the New York airport and the 23rd Street Skyport Marina on the east side of Manhattan.' The chopper is the sole example of the GA-45D by G&A. Formerly Pitcairn Aircraft, this was a subsidiary of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, but by the time of this photo it had been renamed Firestone Aircraft.

This Breguet 941 was tested as the McDonnell Douglas 188 STOL airliner by Eastern Air Lines in 1968 and by American in the spring of 1969. Oddly it never carried a US registration and operated under its type-based French military serial number 2. It is interesting to note that this was a McDonnell and not a Douglas project, even though McDonnell felt more at home building fighters. Taken at the McDonnell factory at Lambert Field, this is assumed to be a McDonnell Douglas photo.

Contender for 1934 Challenge International de Tourisme. Note different landing gear compared to D-IJIP.

France produced an armada of large flying boat types. The prototype 01 of the four-engine Br 730 maritime patrol aircraft flew in April 1938 but crashed in July. This seems to be the first production machine, No 1, but confirmation is sought. No 1 was completed in Vichy French colours but not flown until December 1944 after the liberation of southern France. On one photo it seems to wear invasion stripes. This would be a later shot. The aircraft entered service as a transport, named Véga. It crashed in Arzew, Algeria in January 1949. Three more aircraft were completed, Sirius, Altair and Bellatrix, the latter two to Br 731 standard with a redesigned nose.

Engineer Alfred Verville left the US Army Air Service and joined the Buhl Aircraft Company where he designed the Airster three-seat open biplane. The CA-3A model had the distinction of receiving the first US type certificate, Approved Type Certificate 1. This example took part in the 1927 New York - Spokane Air Derby, flown by Nick Mamer. The National Air Races were held in Spokane, Washington, that year.

The prototype of the Bellanca Airbus, the sole P-100 airframe. Stamped August 1930, this press photo came with the announcement that the plane was to take part in the 1930 Ford Reliability Tour, but it appears that it was replaced by a Bellanca Pacemaker, NC257M, at the last minute, perhaps because its Curtiss Conqueror engine was unreliable. Converted to a P-200 Airbus with a Wright Cyclone radial. To Mexico in July 1931 as XA-BHO.

Neptunes for the Royal Air Force were allocated US Air Force rather than US Navy serials. When these aircraft were returned in 1957-58, many received a wrong serial. "51-15956" was really 51-15931, British serial WX505. To Brazil as FAB 7002. The real 51-15956 (c/n 5161), WX543, later to FAB 7000, returned as 51-15931. This is evidently not a 1951 delivery photo of 51-15956 as the aircraft had no MAD boom back then.

This was the Pioneer prototype, VL515, originally powered by a DH Gipsy Queen inline engine. Re-engined with an Alvis Leonides radial, it became a civil Pioneer II, G-AKBF, and then the first Pioneer CC.1 for the RAF, XE512, in 1953. Photo stamped July 1953. Delivered in August and immediately shipped to Malaysia for service with the Far Eastern Air Force. Crashed there on 4 November 1958.

The He 72 Kadett looks rather like the Fw 44 Stieglitz, but the main landing gear is very different and there is a strut supporting the tailskid. According to the German Wikipedia, He 72 production terminated in 1937 after 768 airframes, including 495 built by Fieseler. It also says that 629 Kadetts remained in Luftwaffe service in 1940, and 417 in January 1944. The Werknummer (c/n) on the tailfin looks like 426 in this and another photo but I'm not sure. It is certainly three-digit, which indicates a Fieseler, not a Heinkel c/n. The badge belongs to Flugzeugführerschule A/B 24, which was based in Olomouc, Czechia for most of WWII.

The He 172 was nothing more than a He 72 trainer with some aerodynamic improvements, notably a NACA cowling. The performance gain was disappointing and only two prototypes were completed in late 1935. It also seems that the Fw 44 Stieglitz was better liked than the Kadett by this time. Photo assumed taken in the winter of 1935-36.

This XH-39 set a new world helicopter speed record of 251 km/h (156 mph) on 26 August 1954. It was preserved at Fort Rucker in 1957. The S-59 was a heavily modified S-52 with a Continental XT51 turboshaft, developed from the French Turbomeca Artouste, and retractable landing gear.

Built in 1945. TS792 not taken up. Seen at some early postwar event apparenty. The aircraft wears wartime BOAC markings and the Speedbird logo. Name Manton not yet applied. This York was used for training at RAF Ossington in 1945 and 1946.

Forerunner of the MS.733 Alcyon trainer, a three-seater with fixed landing gear first flown on 11 August 1949. Its Mathis engine was quickly replaced by a German Argus As 10 engine, producing the MS.731. In 1951 two new MS.732 prototypes got retractable gear, and finally the MS.733 introduced the Potez 6D engine.

This is RAF Heliopolis in Cairo - not the same airfield as Almaza (HEAZ). Some of the buildings look more modern than the aircraft, but then the Valentia looked outdated from the outset. Nevertheless, the type served well into WWII, sometimes still uncamouflaged. The second machine, K3605, even flew a bombing sortie against Italian troops at Sidi Barrani, Egypt in November 1940. The third, K3163, has its serial painted as KR3163, being a rebuilt Victoria. These are No 216 Sqn aircraft.

Roscoe Turner in the Meteor racer that was built for him. The photo must have been taken in 1939 as Champion was his sponsor that year. Almost 44 years old, Turner announced his retirement from racing after winning the 1939 Thompson Trophy race. The Meteor is in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC since 2022. Photo by: Rudy Arnold

New Types Park, 1937 RAF Display. K5115 was the first prototype of the Henley, then a light bomber. K5604 / 7, on the left, is a Gloster F.5/34 monoplane fighter. K7555 / 5 is the Fairey P.4/34, which led to the Fulmar fighter. K8887 / 4 is an Airspeed Queen Wasp target aircraft and behind it is the Oxford prototype L4534 / 3. In the foreground is the DH.91 Albatross prototype E.2, which initially had its twin tailfins mounted close to the fuselage and not as endplates.

No longer wearing 'Arab Legion Air Force' titles. The Arab Legion was renamed the Jordanian army as per 1 March 1956. The photo was probably taken that month at Blackbushe. Ex G-AJDK of BEA, the Viking was used by King Hussein. It was replaced as the royal aircraft by a Varsity, VK-501, ex WF416, which was delivered from Eagle Aviation at Blackbushe in late 1956. The Viking fatally crashed in the Taurus mountains in Syria on 13 December 1956.

Early Wellesleys K7715, K7716, K7717 and K7718 equipped the B flight of No 7 Sqn, which was separated off to start No 76 Sqn at Finningley on 12 April 1937. Photo taken there that month - a group portrait of the new squadron exists with the same aircraft and the same treeline in the background. By 18 October 1938, K7716 was assigned to No 148 Sqn at RAF Stradishall. It collided head-on in mid-air with K7714 that day over Great Dunmow, Essex, and all six crew were killed.

This early Wellesely, the fifth production aircraft, was assigned to No 148 Sqn, but then fitted with a more powerful Bristol Pegasus engine with a long-chord cowl, as seen here, and first flew in this form on 21 January 1938. Although still wearing the squadron number here, it was assigned to Bristol and it crashed near Bristol on Friday 13 May 1938. It is also described as a trials aircraft for the Long Range Development Unit, which spawned from No 148 Sqn, but was not one of the five Type 292 Wellesleys.

'The Student flies'. This is the second prototype of the Bü 180, which was intended as a cheap civilian training aircraft. The V1, D-ELIO, first flew in November 1937. Only some 25 Students were built. Photo most probably taken at the Bücker works at Rangsdorf.