Withdrawn from use in October 2000. Lake Coleridge has been suggested as a site for this photo but no confirmation of a gliding strip there. The lake is a popular waypoint for glider pilots on a cross-country. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

French WWI ace Charles Nungesser and François Coli took off from Le Bourget for a non-stop transatlantic flight to New York on 8 May 1927, but disappeared without trace in L'Oiseau Blanc (The White Bird). This was just before Lindbergh's successful crossing. The PL.8 was developed for this flight from the French navy's PL.4 reconaissance type and the plane wears naval markings. The undercarriage was jettisoned after take-off. Photo from: Bibliothèque nationale de France - Gallica

Wearing neutrality markings. Photographer Thérèse Bonney (1894-1989) was in Finland when the USSR invaded the country on 30 November 1939. Picture assumed taken at Malmi. Photo by: Thérèse Bonney / UC Berkeley Library

An orderly terminal with gates, built in 1937 at then San Francisco Municipal Airport, or Mills Field. It had two paved runways by 1937. Bottom left is not the fire station - one of the trucks reads US Mail. The parked DC-3 is NC18112. On the left is Lockheed 10 NC14945, which was privately owned. Photo by: Werner Stoy / San Francisco Examiner / UC Berkeley Library

The arrival of the C-133, heralded by its distinctive drone, attracted crowds to Christchurch airport. The airport was a base for US Antarctic support. 59-0527 has been preserved at the Pima Air museum. Photo from: Air Force Museum of New Zealand

This DC-3 was two years old in September 1939. Later registrations include EC-AXS with Spantax. Apparently survives in South Africa - see Paul Seymour's 2009 photo of this c/n. Photo by: Werner Stoy / San Francisco Examiner / UC Berkeley Library

'Navy Mystery Plane'. This is the prototype of the PBY Catalina. It had just flown non-stop from Coco Solo, Panama to San Francisco in 34 hours and 45 minutes. The aircraft underwent modifications over the winter and became the XPBY-1 as the P3Y was redesignated PBY. The building in the background belongs to the old Alameda Airport, just to the east of the new Naval Air Station Alameda which opened in 1940. Photo from: San Francisco Examiner / UC Berkeley Library

'George Hearst's four-passenger airplane.' He was a son of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. The aircraft was registered in 1930 and the source dates the photo 'circa 1930'. 'Stinson Detroiter' logo on the tailfin although the SM-8 is usually regarded as an SM-2 Junior version. Photo from: San Francisco Examiner / UC Berkeley Library

Ex 43-16070. Operated by Southwest Airways, which was renamed Pacific Air Lines in 1958, until 1960. The C-47 eventually crashed in Alaska in 1988 due to fuel starvation. Photo from: Sonoma County Library

BC-6 later became 2505 in the Portuguese air force. Construction number according to Scramble but Joe Baugher says that c/n 4072, ex 42-37479, became BC-7 and 2506 in Portuguese service. Photo from: Museu de Marinha (Portugal)

A new Boeing 314, NC18603, at Pan American's Treasure Island base, wearing fleet number 17. Given the amount of people, the photo seems to have been taken during the Golden Gate International Expo which opened here on 18 February 1939. The aircraft flew to Baltimore five days later to join Pan Am's Alantic Division, and was christened Yankee Clipper by Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington, DC on 3 March. Photo from: San Francisco Public Library

Gorgeous picture of a 1938 DC-3 at the 1937 terminal at Mills Field, now SFO. In 1939 the airport had 18 scheduled departures on weekdays, 17 United and one TWA. Photo by: Werner Stoy / San Francisco Examiner / UC Berkeley Library

The DC-3 remained standard equipment throughout the 1950s for North Central Airlines, formerly Wisconsin Central Airlines. NC17320 delivered to TWA in 1937. This airframe was apparently never requisitioned during WWII. Photo by: Albert Fenn / Life

Built for TWA in 1939. Photo by: Albert Fenn / Life

During his photo shoot at the Palm Desert Airpark hotel, famous photographer Loomis Dean caught this one-off aircraft. It was built in 1964 at El Centro, California by Richard Johnston from Tucson, Arizona. A Wright State University archive photo shows N17K with nosewheel gear. Photo by: Loomis Dean / Life

The second of six M.18 flying boats to serve in Portugal's navy from 1928 until about 1934. Flown from the factory in Varese to Lisbon in August-September 1928 - not straightforward without wheels. Photo from: Museu de Marinha (Portugal)

Developed by Caproni Bergamaschi, the company's Bergamo branch, the Ca.310 was a light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft first flown on 20 February 1937. Large numbers of Ca.310, Ca.311, Ca.312, Ca.313 and Ca.314 models were ordered as combat, maritime patrol or training aircraft by Italy, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Peru, and even France, Britain and Germany. Due to world events, many of the orders were not fulfilled, while the planes were strongly disliked in Hungarian, Norwegian and Swedish service. Serial MM20809 confirmed beyond doubt by another photo. Ca.134 MM330 is on the left. 'Dux' is the Latin form of Duce. Photo from: Fondazione Fiera Milano

Two-seat strategic reconnaissance type, although Flight called it an army cooperation aircraft. One 900-hp Asso XI engine. The first of two airframes. The second was MM502. Tail in foreground of MM20903. Photo from: Fondazione Fiera Milano

The sole example of the Ca.123, a civil variant of the equally unsuccessful Ca.122 bomber. It is described as a mailplane or as an airliner for eight to twenty passengers plus three crew. Two 780-hp Gnome-Rhône 14K engines. I-DRIA is a Ca.308 Borea six-passenger aircraft. Reportedly the Ca.306 prototype of the Ca.308 was on display at this 1935 show, but I-DRIA is c/n 3. Photo from: Fondazione Fiera Milano

An enclosed Ro.5bis and an open Ro.5, I-AAVG, at the Campionaria fair, held annualy in April. The source says 1930 but AAVG was registered in September 1930 and AAVH in April 1931. The fuselage fasces roundel only seems to indicate state involvement. Military aircraft additionally wore wing roundels with three fasces. Photo from: Fondazione Fiera Milano