The Short brothers built three similar seaplanes for the Royal Navy in 1912 and 1913, RNAS serials 10, 20 and 21. The concept of aircraft types had not arrived yet but the first one was c/n S.41. This example remained in use until July 1915, flying anti-submarine patrols from Great Yarmouth.

First flown on 17 December 1937. Delivered to Qantas in March 1938. Impressed by the RAAF in June 1940 as A18-13 for reconnaissance flights out of New Guinea and transport work. Back to Qantas in July 1943 for Sydney - Townsville transport flights on behalf of the military. Crashed at Rose Bay in October 1944. Photo from: Paul Sheehan collection

Extensively damaged at Darwin in December 1938, see other photo. Shipped to Engeland for repairs. Registered to Imperial Airways as G-AEUI in October 1939, but British reg apparently not applied until 1942. Scrapped at Hythe in 1947.

The Bizerte was developed from the Short Calcutta. Aéronavale squadron E1 at the Lac de Berre received the type from April 1937. Captured Bizertes were pressed into service by the German Seenotdienst (sea rescue service), and much appreciated for their seaworthiness.

Photographed over Rochester presumably before delivery on 30 September 1937 - the factory is just beyond the bottom of the picture. Destroyed at Broome, Australia in Japanese raid on 3 March 1942. Photo by: Charles E Brown

Cassiopeia crashed at Sabang on 29 December 1941, hitting debris on take-off while carrying a load of ammunition from India to Singapore following the outbreak of the Pacific War. The flying boat is seen with a type of embarkation raft first used in April 1937, designed to prevent damage to the hull. From 1938, passengers boarded straight from the shore at Berth 108 in the port of Southampton, rather than from the Hythe facility.

The Atlas was the first aircraft designed for the army co-operation role to serve with the RAF. J9537 demonstrates how messages could be picked up. This picture was published in Flight in June 1930. Photo from: Flight

A seaplane journey to Latin America on Pan Am started here at Dinner Key in Miami. The terminal building is now the Miami City Hall. NC15064 to Panair do Brazil as PP-PAW.

'National Airlines' seven-passenger Sikorsky S-55 is shown here landing at the new heliport set up adjacent to the Miami Beach Municipal Auditorium.' One of the few big US airlines to try the helicopter, National started a short-lived service between Miami, Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and West Palm Beach in February 1954. Flying magazine also reported daily flights between Miami Beach and Hialeah. Information is hard to find, but this heliport's location could be worked out from the Shelbourne South Beach hotel in the background with the Raleigh Hotel on the far right.

'Probably also issued c/n R3/AV/412.' Ex G-EBUG, flown from Cape Town to London during the first half of 1928 by Lady Heath. Then taken over by Amelia Earhart and shipped to America where she flew it with G-EBUG still worn on the fuselage and '7083' on the rudder. This is a later photo, allegedly taken as late as 1937 although NC7083 was cancelled in 1936. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

One S-43 was delivered to the USSR, to Glavsevmorput (Chief Directorate of the Northern Sea Route). It is seen on the Khimki Reservoir in Moscow. There was a seaplane station on the western shore of the reservoir, opposite the North River Terminal. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

Named Virginia until 1951. To BKS Air Transport in 1954. Last registrations D-AHAF and D-BONE. Photo from: British European Airways

Originally delivered to South African Airways in 1947 as ZS-BNK. To BEA in 1951. Withdrawn in 1955 and sold to Germany. Last registration F-BIPT. Retired in 1964 and broken up. Photo from: British European Airways

Returning from its trip to Juneau, NC16927 again called at the City Float in Ketchikan but the flying boat spent the night moored at a settlement then called Wacker City, on the west side of Ward(s) Cove. More test flights followed and larger four-engined S-42s docked exclusively in Ward Cove according to local historian Dave Kiffer. These flights were discontinued in 1940. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

On 7 August 1938 this PAA Baby Clipper made an experimental flight to Juneau from Seattle, via Ketchikan. A landplane route to Juneau via Prince George, Canada was eventually chosen. This S-43 was later converted to twin-finned S-43B. Note the rather inconvenient access through a dorsal hatch to keep the hull watertight. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

This was the third S-43 for Inter Island Airways. Many sources claim that this aircraft became N326 at some point, but this is not correct (N326 was c/n 4342). This airframe was later preserved at the Pima Air & Space Museum, falsely marked as US Marines 1061. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

Bert Hinkler flew this Puss Moth from New York to London via the South Atlantic: via Jamaica, Maracaibo (Venezuela), Natal, Bathurst (Gambia), St Louis (Senegal), Casablanca, Madrid, and Paris. He is seen arriving at Le Bourget. He continued to London Air Park the same day. Apparently the aircraft name Karohi was only worn on the left side. Hinkler fatally crashed the aircraft in Italy 13 months later.

Seen carrying advertising for a magazine, this Moth had an interesting subsequent career. Bought by the Swedish state, it arrived in Svalbard by ship on 2 July 1928 to take part in the rescue efforts following the crash of the airship Italia. Its commander Umberto Nobile had been rescued by a Swedish Fokker C.V, but that plane crashed during its next landing on the survivors' ice floe. Flying the lighter Moth, Birger Schyberg managed to pick up the C.V's pilot, Lt Einar Lundberg. The Moth then served in the Swedish air force until a crash in 1930. After an extensive rebuild it flew as SE-ADZ until 1950.

From 1926, SISA (Società Italiana Servizi Aerei) flew passenger services between Turin, Venice and Trieste with seaplanes, following the river Po. At Pavia there was a stop on the Ticino tributary. The Idroscalo building here still stands, but unfortunately in a poor state of repair. I-OLTG destroyed July 1932. The single-engined, four-passenger CANT 10 was replaced by CANT 22 trimotors such as I-AACM, registered on 5 April 1930, on the left. Postcard.

The Dodecanese Islands were an Italian territory in the Aegean Sea - Mar Egeo in Italian. A surviving 1935 timetable shows that Ala Littoria flying boats took almost three and a half hours from Brindinsi - Idroscalo Civile to Athens and two and a half hours from Athens to Rhodes. Developed from the S.55, the S.66 could carry 18 to 22 passengers - nine to eleven in each hull. The type saw service as a rescue aircraft during WWII. Photo by: Franz Grasser