AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 45 / 150

Plate 45 of 150 · Second World War · Patrol amphibian

Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina

PBY-6A Catalina, painted as L-866, the RAF Museum’s Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina, built at New Orleans and taken on charge by the US Navy as BuNo 63993 in July 1945, bought by the Royal Danish Air Force in 1956 and flown on search and rescue and patrol duties by Eskadrille 721 from Værløse, flown to RAF Colerne on 30 May 1974 on the last flight of a Danish Catalina and kept at Cosford since 1976: the last production Catalina, a parasol-winged amphibian of 104 ft span with two Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radials, the PBN-1’s tall fin and rudder and a radar radome above the cockpit, shown standing on its wheels with the wingtip floats lowered as it was photographed in 2019 and 2020: light silver-grey with a brown-grey hull bottom, a Day-Glo orange bow cap, wing tips, floats and rear hull band, red cowling tops and wing leading edge, Danish roundels on the hull sides and under the wings, the Danish swallow-tailed flag across the fin and rudder, ‘L-866’ on the fin and three-blade propellers with yellow tips.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as L-866, the RAF Museum’s Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina, built at New Orleans and taken on charge by the US Navy as BuNo 63993 in July 1945, bought by the Royal Danish Air Force in 1956 and flown on search and rescue and patrol duties by Eskadrille 721 from Værløse, flown to RAF Colerne on 30 May 1974 on the last flight of a Danish Catalina and kept at Cosford since 1976: the last production Catalina, a parasol-winged amphibian of 104 ft span with two Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radials, the PBN-1’s tall fin and rudder and a radar radome above the cockpit, shown standing on its wheels with the wingtip floats lowered as it was photographed in 2019 and 2020: light silver-grey with a brown-grey hull bottom, a Day-Glo orange bow cap, wing tips, floats and rear hull band, red cowling tops and wing leading edge, Danish roundels on the hull sides and under the wings, the Danish swallow-tailed flag across the fin and rudder, ‘L-866’ on the fin and three-blade propellers with yellow tips. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.1 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the PBY-6A Catalina modelled here.

History

The Catalina

Isaac M. “Mac” Laddon of Consolidated designed the Catalina for a 1933 US Navy requirement for a long-range patrol flying boat. His Model 28 put a single all-metal wing of 104 ft span on a short pylon above a two-step hull, braced by a pair of struts each side, and swung its wingtip floats up to form the wing tips in flight. The prototype XP3Y-1 first flew on 28 March 1935, and the type entered Navy service as the PBY-1 with Patrol Squadron VP-11F in October 1936. Two Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasps on the wing’s leading edge gave it a cruising speed of little more than 110 knots but an endurance of well over 20 hours.

The RAF bought its first in 1939 and gave the type the name Catalina, which the US Navy adopted in 1941. On 26 May 1941 a Catalina of No. 209 Squadron found the Bismarck as she made for France; on 4 April 1942 Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall’s crew spotted the Japanese fleet steaming for Ceylon; and two Catalina pilots, Flying Officer John Cruickshank of No. 210 Squadron and Flight Lieutenant David Hornell of the RCAF, won the Victoria Cross attacking U-boats in the summer of 1944. American crews flew them as night-attack “Black Cats” in the Pacific and as “Dumbo” rescue aircraft. From the PBY-5A of 1941 they were amphibians, with a retractable tricycle undercarriage.

Some 3,300 were built in the United States and Canada, more than any other flying boat, and another few hundred under licence in the Soviet Union. The PBY-6A, built at New Orleans in 1945, was the last production model: an amphibian with the taller fin and rudder of the Naval Aircraft Factory’s PBN-1 Nomad, a radar radome above the cockpit and a revised bow. After the war Catalinas served with air forces around the world, and as airliners, survey aircraft and water bombers. Denmark flew them on search and rescue and fishery patrols around Greenland and the Faroes until 1970.

This airframe

PBY-6A Catalina L-866

L-866The airframe modelled

L-866 was taken on charge by the US Navy as BuNo 63993 on 1 July 1945 and served in California and Hawaii. The Royal Danish Air Force bought it in 1956 and, after an overhaul, took delivery in 1957; it was one of the Catalinas flown by Eskadrille 721 from Værløse on search and rescue and patrol duties, including over Greenland, until they were retired. Denmark sold it to the RAF Museum for a token sum in 1972, and on 30 May 1974 it flew from Værløse to RAF Colerne, the last flight of a Danish Catalina, where it was handed over. It went to Cosford by road in 1976 and was kept indoors there for many years before being moved outside, next to the War in the Air hangar. The model shows it as photographed in 2019 and 2020: light silver-grey with a brown-grey hull bottom, a Day-Glo orange bow cap, wing tips, floats and rear hull band, red cowling tops and a red stripe along the wing leading edge, Danish roundels on the hull sides and under the wings, the Danish swallow-tailed flag across the fin and rudder, “L-866” on the fin and the radar radome above the cockpit, standing on its wheels with the floats lowered. No photograph looks down on the upper wing, so it is left plain.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum Midlands

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Catalina in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 150 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.