Alaska Aviation Museum - (unofficial)

PBY

AAM Alaska Aviation Museum 1944 PBY
AK PBYs in Alaska
Engineer The Flight Engineer position just under the wing
Misc
Recovery How our plane got to Lake Hood
Tail The tail gunner position

What kind of aircraft is that huge beat up flying boat thingy with wheels?

The short answer is that it's a "PBY".

It is a Consolidated Aircraft design referred to as a "Catalina".

The designation "PBY" was determined in accordance with the U.S. Navy aircraft designation system of 1922; PB representing "Patrol Bomber" and Y being the code assigned to Consolidated Aircraft as its manufacturer.

The prototype Catalina first flew on March 28, 1935, the first production PBY Catalina was launched in San Diego Bay in 1936.

This aircraft is a Consolidated PBY-5A model manufactured by Canadian Vickers Limited. Since it's the first version built by Vickers, it's model number is "1" rather than "5-A", so it's designation is "PBV-1". Canadian Catalinas were named Canso by the Royal Canadian Air Force in accordance with contemporary British naming practice of naming seaplanes after coastal port towns, in this case for the town of Canso in Nova Scotia. The RAF in contrast used the Catalina name.

The PBY-5A model was manufactured from October 1941 through January 1945. It's features were: Hydraulically actuated, retractable tricycle landing gear, with main gear design based on one from the 1920s designed by Leroy Grumman, for amphibious operation. Introduced tail gun position, replaced bow single gun position with bow "eyeball" turret equipped with twin .30 machine guns (some later units), improved armor, self-sealing fuel tanks. Previous models were seaplanes without wheels.

The United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force used the designation OA-10.

The OA-10 operated primarily for air-sea rescue work ("DUMBO" missions) with the USAAF's Emergency Rescue Squadrons throughout WWII and for several years thereafter. During the war, OA-10 crews rescued hundreds of downed fliers.

In July 1941, the Canadian government awarded Canadian Vickers Limited a contract to produce PBV-1 "Canso" amphibians (a version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat) for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Many of the aircraft were delivered to the United States Navy (USN) as the PBV-1; also to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as the OA-10A for rescue work.

What you called the plane depended on who was operating it, and where it was built.



PBY vs F-22
PBY F-22
Length: 63' 10" 62'
Wingspan: 104' 44'
Empty weight: 20,00 lbs 43,00 lbs
Max weight: 35,00 lbs 85,00 lbs
Ferry Range: 2,520 miles 1,738 nm
Fuel Capacity: 1,750 gallons 3,050 gallons

According to Wikipedia: The cockpit canopy of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor jet fighter is made from a piece of high optical quality polycarbonate, and is the largest piece of its type formed in the world.

PBY

Engine fuel consumption at cruise = 28 gallons per hour

Two engines = 56 gallons per hour

1,750 gallons / 56 gallons per hour = 31 hours cruise time

At $5 per gallon = $8,750 for a fill-up and $280 per hour for gas


PBY compared to a Subaru Forester:

1,750 gallons x 28 MPG = 49,000 miles

At 12,000 miles per year = 4 years of driving

The "PBY" on display here was built in Canada by the Canadian Vickers company. It had hydraulically actuated tricycle landing gear for amphibious operations. This model had a bow turret with twin 30 caliber machine guns and self sealing fuel tanks. During WWII it was used in anti-submarine patrol, observation, search and rescue. This model of PBY cruised at 125 knots, a ceiling of 15,800 feet with 2 engines rated at 1200 hp each. It carried a crew of 8.

While operating with the 10th Rescue Squadron in 1947 at Elmendorf Air Force Base, the AAM Catalina landed at Dago Lake on the Alaska Peninsula. It was an emergency landing caused by engine failure. The lake was too shallow for the plane to receive repairs and then take off. Declared government surplus, it was purchased by the R.S. Richards family, stripped of parts and left at Dago Lake until 1984.

A gigantic recovery project conducted by the National Guard and the AAM volunteers finally brought the huge amphibian to the museum utilizing two Alaska helicopter operations in 1984 & 1987. This operation was captured in a DVD called "The Queen of Dago Lake".




PBY Nose PBY Midsection PBY Tail


cons_catalina_tb.gif (6,668 bytes)
Thanks to Virtual Aircraft Museum

It had hydraulically actuated tricycle landing gear for amphibious operations. This model had a bow turret with twin 30 caliber machine guns and self sealing fuel tanks. During WWII it was used in anti-submarine patrol, observation, search and rescue. This model of PBY cruised at 125 knots, a ceiling of 15,800 feet with 2 engines rated at 1200 hp each. It carried a crew of 8.

10th Air Rescue Squadron (ARS), an active duty squadron organized at Elmendorf Field in 1946 and mostly manned by Alaskans.
The 10th had itself inherited the tradition of the 924th Quartermaster Company, Boat (Aviation), a rescue unit which was constituted in Alaska on 14 June 1942, saw action during the Aleutian Island Campaign, was redesigned the 10th Emergency Rescue Boat Squadron on 3 July 1944, and was inactivated on 8 March 1946.

While operating with the 10th Rescue Squadron in 1947 at Elmendorf Air Force Base, the AAM Catalina landed at Dago Lake on the Alaska Peninsula. It was an emergency landing caused by engine failure. The lake was too shallow for the plane to receive repairs and then take off. Declared government surplus, it was purchased by the R.S. Richards family, stripped of parts and left at Dago Lake until 1984.

A gigantic recovery project conducted by the National Guard and the AAM volunteers finally brought the huge amphibian to the museum utilizing two Alaska helicopter operations in 1984 & 1987. This operation was captured in a film called "The Queen of Dago Lake" and it is for sale in our store.

If you search around on the web, you can find different specifications for the same model PBY. Different speeds, ceiling, range. This table from Wikipedia says that the PBY-5A had a radar operator, but the same pages says that the radome wasn't added until the PBY-6A model.

Specifications (PBY-5A)

General Characteristics PBY-5A
Crew: 9 - pilot, co-pilot, bow turret gunner
, flight engineer, radio operator, navigator
, two waist gunners, ventral gunner
Length: 63' 10 7/16" 19.46 m -
Height: 21' 1" 6.15 m -
Wingspan: 104' 0" 31.70 m -
Wing area: 1,400 sq. ft 130 sq. m -
Fuel Capacity: 1,750 gal 6,624 l
Empty Weight: 20,910 lb 9,485 kg -
Gross Weight: 33,904 lb 15,375 kg -
Max Weight:
at takeoff
35,420 lb 16,066 kg max 36,400 lbs
Power plant 2 x Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radial engines, 1,200 hp
Fuel Use per eng 28-35 gal/hr 105-135 l/hr
Performance
Speed max 196 mph 314 km/h 184 mph
Speed cruising 125 mph 201 km/h 120 mph
Ceiling 15,800 ft 4,000 m 22,400 ft
Range 2,520 miles 4,030 km 2,325 miles
Rate of Climb 1,00 ft/min 5.1 m/sec -
Armament
3 x .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail) 2 x .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns (one in nose turret, one in a rear tunnel)
2 x .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns (one in each waist blister) -
4,000 lbs (1,814 kg) of bombs or depth charges; torpedo racks were also available 8,000 lbs of bombs


PBY Links

Consolidated Aircraft
Warbird Alley - Consolidated PBY Catalina
Canadian Vickers Limited
Wikipedia - Consolidated PBY Catalina
OA-10
pacificwrecks.com
PBY.com
Pinterest Catalina-PBY
DUMBO missions
Heritage of the Combat Search and Rescue Professionals pamphlet
10th Emergency Rescue Boat Squadron
10th Air Rescue Squadron
PBY History and great pictures

112_flight_crew_(og2443).jpg (63,971 bytes) PBY Air July 2003 Sir Mildred Pierce
Image from: Catalina Preservation Society
www.daveswarbirds.com

Thanks to daveswarbirds.com

PBY Print