| In1933 Consolidated of
Buffalo was in competition with Douglas of Santa Monica to supply the United
States Navy with its first cantilever-monoplane flying boat. Though
the Douglas aircraft was good, its rival, designed by Isaac
M. Laddon, was to prove a classic. It would be manufactured in greater
numbers than any flying boat before or since.
The original Catalina featured
two 825 hp Twin Wasps mounted close together on a
wide clean wing, on the tips of which were retractable stabilising floats.
The prototype XP3Y-1 achieved a speed of 184 mph - high for a flying boat
in 1935. Production began at San Diego, California. The initial order
- for 60 - was exceptionally large for the time, but within a decade more
than 4,000 had been ordered.
In 1938 three were purchased
by the Soviet Union, which urgently tooled up to build its own version,
the GST. In 1939 the British RAF bought one PBY and soon placed large
orders - it was the RAF which gave the aircraft its name 'Catalina'. This
name was adopted in the United States in 1942.
In December 1939 came the
PBY-5A (OA-10) with retractable landing gear, which was named the 'Canso'
by the Canadian air force. Many hundreds of both the boat and the
amphibian version were built by Canadian Vickers (as the PBV-1) and Boeing
Canada (as the PB2B-1). Revised versions with heightened tail-fins
were manufactured at New Orleans (PBY-6A) and by the Naval Aircraft Factory
at Philadelphia (PBN-10).
The Catalina established
a remarkable combat record during World War Two. In the Atlantic
it performed vital service in the war against the U-boats, and an RAF Catalina
famously located the Bismarck after the formidable German battleship
had temporarily succeeded in escaping from British forces.
In the Pacific the Catalina
gave outstanding service in the search and rescue role. It was a
Catalina which first located the advancing Japanese forces during the decisive
Battle of Midway. 'Black Cat' night-flying Catalinas made a valuable and
prolonged contribution to the Allied effort in the Solomons campaigns during
1942-43, frequently making torpedo attacks on Japanese shipping. For many
years after World War Two hundreds of Catalinas served with various nations,
in civilian as well as in military roles. |
(for
PBY-5)
Type
Flying boat
Function
Maritime Patrol
/ Anti-submarine/
Torpedo Attack / Rescue
CrewUsually
seven
Dimensions
Span 104' - Length 63' 11"
Weight
Loaded
- 34,000 lb (15,436 kg)
Engines
Two 1,200
hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder two-row radials
Performance
Maximum speed -
196 mph (314 km/h)
Armament
Offensive
Weapons
Typical
Defensive armament (United States)
Typical
Defensive armament (British)
Martin
PBM Mariner - maritime patrol flying boat
Acknowledgments
Main
source of information for this page was -
The line drawings of the PBY-5A are reproduced, with thanks, from the same
work
The
illustration of the Catalina IIA at the head of this page is reproduced
with thanks from -
The
colour illustration of the PBY-5A is reproduced with thanks from -
