In the foreground is a Hudson III for Britain, AE532 (c/n 414-3887). The Lodestar was delivered to the NEI and evacuated to Australia in 1942. It was allocated USAAF serial 42-68353. Operated by Australian National Airways for war work when destroyed by Japanese air raid at Port Moresby on 17 August 1942.

After amphibious landing at Balikpapan, Dutch Borneo, DUKW vehicles carried Austers of 16 AOP Flight to Sepinggan airfield on 3 July 1945. A11-18 was delivered to RAF as NJ810 in October 1943. Sold to Australia and shipped to Sydney late in 1944. Sold as VH-GAE in 1947. To VH-DAE. Lost without trace on 4 October 1950 on a flight from Coff's Harbour, NSW, to Newcastle, NSW.

The Potez 63 in its basic form was a three-seat fighter, crewed by a pilot, a gunner and a commander who was supposed to direct formations of single-seat fighters. The initial Potez 630 version suffered from unreliable Hispano-Suiza 14Ab engines and was relegated to training duties.

Dutch 'Glenn Martins' over Malaya with, interestingly, one of only a few RAAF Wirraways sent there. The bombers are Martin 166, or 139 WH3, models with a single long 'glass house' canopy. M-556 was captured by the Japanese at Singapore in February 1942. On the right is M-551.

Hack aircraft displaying the seahorse emblem of 1./Bordfliegergruppe 196. This was the principal Arado Ar 196 squadron equipping Kriegsmarine warships, but the Luftwaffe kept burdening it with coastal work and its various detachments included one at Schellingwoude, near Amsterdam, in 1940-41. Photo by: Karl Rauscher

Visitors to the Musée de l'Air may recognize this helicopter but here it is in its original form. Underpowered, the same prototype was re-engined and at the same time enlarged, and designated G.111. According to Aviastar.org, the designations were G.IIE and G.III. First flight of the G.11E occurred on 9 December 1948 according to the Musée de l'Air, but on 21 May 1949 going by other sources.

The Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter was comparable to the French Djinn but unsuccessful. G-APJJ was tested by the Royal Navy in 1958.

New aircraft put on display on a square in Vincennes, Paris. Registered to André Joly, the secretary of a committee which intended to make a flight to Vincennes, Indiana, by 1935, with a boat crossing from Dakar to Natal. It probably never happened. The building is at 2, Rue de Condé-sur-Noireau. Now named for WWII general Leclerc, the square was then the Place de la Tourelle.

The prototype Rangoon, RAF serial S1433, spent its last days training Imperial Airways pilots, operated by Air Service Training. Scrapped at Hamble in 1938.

Note the large tailplane, actually a second wing. The tandem-wing Taupin was built in some numbers by the Société Française de Construction Aéronautique (SFCA). The company was based here at Buc, a historic airfield adjacent to Toussus-le-Noble (LFPN). Louis Blériot established his ambitious Aeropark here in 1909. The grand building was the student pilots' hotel, known as the Hôtel Blériot and in use at this time with the Groupe Aérien du Touring Club de France.

One of several French six-engined transatlantic flying boat designs, the Lioré et Olivier H-49 was built as the SE.200 Amphitrite, named for the wife of Poseidon. The first prototype made its maiden flight on 11 December 1942. Taken by the Germans, it was sunk by RAF Mosquitos at Lake Constance in April 1944. A USAAF raid destroyed or damaged four more airframes under construction at Marignane. No 03 was completed and flown after the war. It was written off after a hard landing at the Étang de Berre in October 1949. It is seen here in the old port of Marseille with the Église Saint-Ferréol les Augustins.

Frits Koolhoven's FK.34 thinking it's a submarine. This was a seaplane conversion of an FK.31, possibly H-NACF (c/n 211). A second demonstration ended similarly with a leaking float and the Dutch navy lost its interest. Photo from: Johannes Kaauw / Pabo collection

Government aircraft operated in Lufthansa markings. Carried Joachim von Ribbentrop, the new Nazi ambassador to London.

Crashed into Lake Habbaniyah, Iraq on 27 November 1938.

'Practising for RAF Empire Day pageant near RAF Martlesham Heath,' but the year is not clear. The Valentia transport, an updated Victoria, did not fly until 1934. K3603 crashed in Lincolnshire in 1941. The other aircraft is said to be S1715, a Vildebeest which was converted as a Vincent and wears a night bomber paint job.

Most probably the start of the massive 1938 German Air Rally. A reported 390 aircraft took part. In the left row are Fw 44 aircraft including D-EOQA and D-EGDU, third, which registration is listed as a Bü 131. Rangsdorf, south of Berlin, was opened as a sport airfield for the 1936 Olympics. The Bücker plant was located here. Lufthansa moved its flights from Tempelhof to Rangsdorf during WWII.

Although unsuccessful with its twin canted tailrotors, the SE.3110 was a step on the road towards the Alouette. Photo date unconfirmed but the first flight of the second prototype on this date quickly ended in a crash, and a post-crash photo appears to show the same location. It is not clear if it was rebuilt. F-WFUD (c/n 01) and F-WFUE are said to have become F-BFUD and F-BFUE, but there is no confirmation of this in the French register.

That the concept of touring the world in a flying yacht might not be understood everywhere was highlighted on 23 March 1960 when the American Kendall family came under attack by armed tribesmen on this beach near the Gulf of Aqaba. The wreck can be inspected through Google Street View. Unfortunately the wing pylon has meanwhile collapsed and the tail broken off. This airframe had also starred in a 1959 movie, SOS Pacific. See the other photos. Photo by: Ken Stanford

First flown in April 1948, the good-looking Bonzo did not enter production. Zdeněk Rublič developed it from his Mráz M-1 Sokol. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

Also reported to be a C.Vc, but apparently belonging to a C.Ve batch in which each airframe cost 40,560 guilders. Evaluated with a Lorraine-Dietrich 12Db powerplant, it seems to have a Hispano-Suiza here. Postcard.