Pre-war aviation

[HMan]

I saw the following picture in another forum just captioned "Hawaiian flyby".
Would anyone have more information, such as aircraft types, date, and what
branch of service this is?



Some other pictures of this era:

B-4 bomber:



B-3 bombers (over SF?):

[OpanaPointer]

I found one seaplane that looks similar to that one.

[OpanaPointer]

Middle plane: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_B-4

[R Leonard]

Flying boat in first photo is the Douglas XRD-1, b/n A8876, circa 1932. The USN had only one. I believe the second which Larry posted may be a civilian version.

[OpanaPointer]

Flying boat in first photo is the Douglas XRD-1, b/n A8876, circa 1932. The USN had only one. I believe the second which Larry posted may be a civilian version.

I'd be very comfortable with that, it was probably used to fly people out to the islands. Errol Flynn might have been on board that one.

[Takao]

Flying boat in first photo is the Douglas XRD-1, b/n A8876, circa 1932. The USN had only one. I believe the second which Larry posted may be a civilian version.

Correct, the second one is a Douglas Dolphin of the Wilmington-Catalina Airline, Ltd.

In addition to the RD-1, the US Navy also had 3 RD-2s, and six RD-3s. Essentially, the same Dolphin airframe but using different engines.

[HMan]

A belated thanks for the replies. So 1st plane in 1st picture in OP
is navy. I'm guessing the uniforms are army or marines (Do sailors
ever wear uniform boots?) The planes behind them I'm guessing
are army bombers - Did Navy or Marines ever operate 2 engine
biplane bombers?

So perhaps it is an inter-service race? The civy outfits look like
Kentucky Derby get ups.

I would be grateful if anyone else post pics of pre-war aviation .

[OpanaPointer]

First picture shows Army officers on the reviewing stand, and on the ground to the right of the senior officers. I'm guessing the other planes are an honor guard for the big guy. "Welcome to Hawaii!" My poorly remembered protocol says that if the officers aren't in the center then the people who are are of some importance. Perhaps the Governor?