Ground Crew 'wheels' Catalina number 62-P into position at Millville Airport in Southern NJ sometime in the late 1990's - engines are started, plane taxis, takes off and departs... www.njsouth.com...
My mother went to work for Consolidated just as war was breaking out in Europe. She worked as a pipe fitter and installed wiring in PBY’s. She was tiny, just 4’11” and could fit in tight spaces which the PBY has in abundance. She was very proud of the work she did on those planes and I’ve always been a huge fan of the plane. One of the finest designs of all time. If only I had the money.....
Thank you for posting this. Every time I see reference to a Catalina I'm reminded of my late uncle who lost his life as a pilot in the 2nd World War. His Catalina hit a mine landing near Townsville, north eastern Australia either late 1941 or early 1942.
The Catelina PB-Y is such a funky, different, beautiful looking plane. Thanks for the great video of the closups and the takeoff! I love those old WWII birds!
I have wanted a PBY since the first time I saw a picture of one, and that was a looong time ago. It is in a class all by itself. Beautiful. Thanks for posting, logoxyz.
As an Frmr. U.S.C.G. HU16e Flt.Mech. it would be a wet dream for me to get to work and fly one of these babies !! I just love seaplanes and the smell of those radials first firing up !
What a beautiful plane ! My father used to talk about it with a lot of passion. During WW2 he flew it along the coast of Brazil in search for U boats. Thanks for the nice movie. It brings me warm memories of my dad.
My God. I think from now on I will use this video instead of Viagra. What a beautiful airplane. When I was a kid I used to play inside two abandoned Catalinas (long story) and even then I was fascinated by the beauty of this aircraft. Americans have a unique skill to make excellent and at the same time, very beautiful planes and specially with military planes, the mos beautiful paint liveries
Great video of the ex-NWM Catalina. I was fortunate enough to spend a weekend as volunteer flight on this plane back in the 90's. Got to fly from Geneseo, NY to Port Clinton, Ohio for an airshow. Spent part of the trip riding in the engineers' station in the wing pylon, and we flew over Lake Erie for much of the trip, so really got a feel for what it must have been like back then.
I used to see a PBY all the time at a small airport in a suburb area of downtown St. Paul,MN until it got flipped during a nasty wind storm.Then they got a hold of a red firebomber PBY and flew that one for a while.Now they are both up north in Duluth,MN under different stages of restoration.They are taking parts off the firebomber and slowly putting it on the flipped PBY.Before all this happened she was fully restored to her original WWII colors.
God Bless PBYs and their crews. You can't fight the enemy if you don't know where he is. Many went on to have second live's even more adventurous than their wartime first.
Dear logoxyz, some how your prayers and my own sense of loss for the uncle I never knew prompted me to dig deeper. I discovered that while he did pilot Catalinas during the great conflict, he was in command of an Empire Flying Boat, the British four engine aircraft, when he left us. Thank you again for your thoughts
Pratt & Whitneys or Wright Cyclones; marvelous engines. many still working to this day, as long as they're overhauled when due. But they will run forever, along with the beautiful plane they power! My Dad was in Iceland from May 1942 until May, 1944, building & expanding runways, and making additional fields out of range of "spying eyes", for the planes ferrying from/to the UK and America/Canada, and for the Anti-Sub PBYs and Navy B-24s that tried to cover "Torpedo Alley" for the convoys. They had to use the 5As, the Amphibs, because a storm would wreck them if left in the water in Iceland, and the ice would make them so heavy, they could not lift off. Even had some B-17s and B-24s, on top of the Dakotas (C-47s) that flew from CA and OK to North or South Dakota, gas up, form up, some to Canada, the rest to Greenland/Iceland, and then go to the UK. All had to stop in Iceland to gas up, get repairs done if an engine or a radio was acting up, get a leaking gas tank plugged if leaking, or had a balky landing gear. One of the C-47s great secrets was the landing gear; balloon tires and great shock absorbers, able to handle more than her rated 6,000 lbs (just in case), and so when used as a medivac plane, it was quite possible to put her down very softly, to keep the wounded from being in more pain than they already were. My Dad hit Easy Red on D+1 at Normandy, and his unit of Cbt Avn Egrs built the first Emergency airfield up the hill from Bloody Omaha. He said the C-47s started coming in before they finished the Marston Mat runway. Their first priority was to bring over another Field Hospital Unit, because the one that was supposed to land on D Day lost all their equipment, and ended up fighting along with the infantry, and many were killed and wounded. For about 4 days, all medical stuff was done by the medics, as best they could. After I saw "Saving Private Ryan", I knew why he never talked much about it. He said there were bodies of GIs still in the water when they landed; they had to push them away with their rifle butts so their LCVP could land, and he left his breakfast in the water. All he ever said was, "that damned hill!" But his two favorite planes were the PBY and the C-47.
David Smith I ABSOLUTELY love this plane, I wish there was a variant to put electric remote control turrets on it, like the A-26 Invader is have a turret with twin fifties on the bow the same turret set up replacing the blisters on the top center and a single 20mm oerlikon remote control turret replacing the 7.62 on the bottom
In the '70's, my co-worker Micky & I were coming home from work at Eastern Airlines in MIA and saw one at Opa Locka (former WW-II field in north Mia area). Micky gave me a tour and said he had flown in them out of Banana River (near Cape Kennedy) early in his 20 year career. They had a hot plate to heat up food for their long patrols. He was junior man on his first flite and got cook duties.He was told to open the huge can of peas they had gotten from the chow hall. When he did, one of the crew cracked open one of the big blister windows which created a swirling pressure wave that instantly spread the peas all over the interior. He had to clean them out of a thousand nooks and crannies to serve out his "initiation."
During WWII, these warbirds were a common sight on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia. I've only seen them in archives, and it took a ballsy crew to fly one. Reliable with a strong airframe, but slow. Although this is the first time I've seen one take off from a runway, rather than a lake or a river.
I've read some biographies by guys who flew the PBY in the war and was surprised that most of them felt the plane was obsolete by 1943. The main complaint seemed to be its relatively low speed. In spite of that they continued to serve all over the world for decades after the war ended and several are still flying today.
The sound of the PBY's engines are very distinct. I don't think there's any other airplane with that sound. What a beautiful bird to see and hear flying.
A truly remarkable aircraft. One of these birds help locate the Bismark in the stormy north Atlantic. They had great range and loiter capability. It's remarkable that they could even fly with two engines given that huge wingspan and bulky size.
The Catalina must be a tremendously fun and safe airplane to fly. Operates off of water and land and has all those amazing canopies popping out that must be thrilling to sit in and look from.
I like that, "Put it in gear and let the clutch out!" If I remember right, they took off at 90, cruised at 90 and landed at 90. A really impressive machine.
great sound.... and when you really look at her you see the lineage of the a-26 and the Mars.... she's beautiful. interesting that many who flew during the war never flew after that... I know a guy who ended up working for Ford who flew PBY's for the american navy during ww2 but once discharged, never took the controls of another aircraft.... would be an interesting thesis of conflict and the roles of those who fought.... and where they saw their lives versus "their duty"....
What a beautiful aircraft. I live in Northern Ireland and am an aviation enthusiast having obtained my private pilot's licence many years ago. During the Second World War our little country was the most westerly part of the United Kingdom as the Republic of Ireland was neutral. We have many war time historical events to our credit including the fact that the German North Atlantic U Boat fleet was ordered into Londonderry when Germany surrendered. About 60 U Boats came arrived on the surface displaying black flags as ordered to avoid air attack. In County Fermanagh we have a beautiful lakeland district and many flying boats were based there mostly Short's Sunderlands which had a 12 hours duration and before Germany surrendered flew far out into the Atlantic to offer air cover for the massive shipping convoys carrying arms and food towards the UK. One of the great naval battles of that conflict involved the German battle cruiser Bismarck. She sank HMS Hood, an allied cruiser with the loss of almost 1,500 crew and only 3 survivors. Churchill gave an immediate order to "Sink the Bismarck" which was later made into a movie of that name. The allies were desperately searching for her and it was spotted by the crew of a Catalina through a break in the clouds well out into the Atlantic. The plane had taken off from and returned to the Fermanagh lakes. She radioed back the position of the Bismarck which had had its rudder damaged in the battle and was zig-zaging her way to Brest in Northern France for repairs. As a result of the sighting allied warships homed in on Bismarck and sank her. The team which found the Titanic on the ocean floor also later found the wreck of the Bismarck. I recall air shows many years ago at my little flying club when for a few years a Catalina was on display but not in nearly as good condition as the beautiful aircraft in this video. Hope this is of interest. Alan Simpson.
Didn't they have a problem with mid air explosions? They were the flying lifeboat but also called the flying bomb because of fume build up in the cabin.
I believe this Cat was once owned by the National Warplane Museum in Elmira, NY but they had to sell. I've been inside it many times but never up in it. I inquired about renting it for my wedding in Ithaca. I wanted to land on Seneca Lake, and my wife and I and the wedding party would fly out and meet the guests in the main hanger of the NWP for the reception but she wasn't seaworthy. We still had the reception in the hangar, but it would have been nice to roll up in that beautiful bird.
I noticed that, like starting instruction I've seen for other radials, the pilot rotates the engine and counts 9 blades passing (3 complete revolutions of the prop), I imagine to prime the cylinders, then fires it up.
We turned 15 blades on the R2800 engines and then switched on the mags (ign.) and hi boost (fuel pumps) Oil gets distributed and it ensures there is no accumulated oil in the lower cylinders (hydraulic lock)
Actually the earliest PBY's weren't built with landing gear and were strictly flying boats (several of these can be seen in the movie TORA! TORA! TORA!) and had to be cradled by dollies to leave the water. Later variations (the ones most people think of when they think of a PBY) were amphibious.
@dua0001 they all were water birds, the pby had retracts , and could take off on a runway or in the water, the empire flying boat was too heavy to come out of the water and take off on land
great video o a beautiful amphibious bird...but it looked like much less speed and distance needed than on a water take-off...much less....once again great video.
@@stephanlamersdorf4565 a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into. A boat that flies would only cost more because of what it is. That being said, if you or I happened to find one and wanted to restore it, I’m positive that investors would step up and eventually beat us out of it
wonderful looking aircraft.From the front it looks a bit like a frog or insect with big eyes. These guys realy love what they do,just as they are pushing her out on to the flight line for readyness you can here them laughing. fantastic sound from the pratt & whitnys. Are they the R1820s. thanks
I don't know how different they really are; I haven't seen a DC-3 flying for a while to compare them. But if they are different, the only likely difference I can think of is that the PBY has exhausts mounted on the top of the engine nacelles, while the other planes that use the R-1830 have them on the bottom. It may be that the different collector ring designs effect the harmonics of the exhaust sound. The DC-3 also has longer pipes, but that's not true of other planes that use the engine.
That's funny, because they used the R-1830 in lots of other planes; the B-24, the C-47, the Dauntless, the Devastator, the F4F Wildcat, etc. Unless the PBY had a unique prop, or the fuselage shape effected the sound, it shouldn't be that distinctive. Maybe the exhaust outlet was different.
thanks for posting this! this reminds me of the stories my grandpa told me about how this plane saved him in the pacific ocean after a japanese sniper shot him of the american ship the uss rocklobster... it hit him in the groin and he got hurt real bad
@Cthrilla the large wing span give it great lift & hang time while on patrol or on SAR missionthe wing being fuel tank add to it abilties. it pulled a many of GI's out of the soup.
@wlh1usa :-) Perhaps it is because of my age (56) but the sound of these engines (DC3, DC4, Connies, and the like are THE image (should I say, sound?) of the generic concept of Aircraft. Thanks for your reply
I saw the oldest still flying PB-Y not long ago, they are such a beauties even from a 5meter distance, which is rare in planes (NF-5 and F16 are butt ugly up close)
Cool, thanks for the reply. I was wondering because the guy on the Military channel was saying there was a "land based" version, and a "sea based" version of the Catalina.
I've heard that the B-24 Liberator was another difficult plane to fly,while the B-17 was fairly easy at the controls for a heavy bomber. When I was in college (years ago) one of my instructors was a B-17 pilot out of the 8th Army Air Force.
David Smith I read a pretty decent account of the WWII B-24 missions called "Elusive Horizons" by a pilot named Schuyler. There ought to be some used copies around for a couple of bucks, if you are interested.
+martianshoes Hell, B-24 s were built at Willow Run, a few miles outside of Detroit. I was born an grew up in Detroit. I love any info on Word War Two aircraft.
