Malcolm Turnbull honours RAAF pilot in US

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has honoured the only Australian buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Mr Turnbull, in the US on a four-day trip where he will meet US President Donald Trump, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and another at the grave of RAAF Pilot Officer Francis Milne.

Officer Milne was attached to the US Army Air Forces Number 6 Troop Carrier Squadron as a co-pilot on Dakota transports in World War II.

His aircraft was shot down on November 26, 1942, over New Guinea and it crashed into a swamp.

The wreckage was found in 1989 and his remains were identified with Technical Sergeant Joseph E Paul, the US flight engineer on board.

The two aviators were buried together in the same plot at Arlington, where military members from as far back as the Civil War have been laid to rest.

Mr Turnbull will meet with Mr Trump at the White House on Friday (Saturday morning AEDT).