Deck it out like one of the Black Cat squadrons!!! Now that would be cool.

One of the few war stories that dad used to share was about his PBY ride .

As a 20 y.o. kid fro Easter Iowa ,he'd never been west of Des Moines.

After a train trip to the west coast and sme training he was on a ship headed to Japan and sea sick for three weeks.
While
Distributing all the mothers sons around many island they ride the PBY's.

He said it was the loudest, noisiest and unnerving way to travel.

Between the half panic of getting shot down, the terrible vibration and the taking off and landing ,it made the troop sip experience seem like like a merry go round.

Once was more than enough for him, but he would do it twice more.

But it knocked the hell out of home sick thoughts

A friend of a Canadian guy I knew told a story of a friend of his that flew on a PBY that was being ferried from Europe to North America. His story mirrors Bendables in that it was a miserable noisy ride.

I stand corrected, Jimmy Buffets' seaplane, The Hemisphere Dancer, was a Grumman Albatros.

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles YT channel has an episode featuring the PBY.

https://youtu.be/iOi0o91Sw7U

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Every plane has to have a name. Id call mine "Strawberry 5".

I see what you did there.....

The Japanese carrier fleet didn't.

quote:

Originally posted by stickman428:
one of the first things I would do if I won the powerball is find a PBY Catalina, completely restore/modernize it and then go on an adventure flying around, exploring, camping

With your plucky band of anthropomorphic animal sidekicks?

You left out the most important part. Surfing.

Not surfing the Catalina though. That doesn’t work out so well.

quote:

Originally posted by Captain Morgan:
Every plane has to have a name. Id call mine "Strawberry 5".

Great idea! Loved them since I saw that movie when I was about 9 years old.

I love this idea but I am not holding my breath.

Kinda makes me want to move to Florida just so I can apply to work at this company.

What a great project to be a part of!

My Dad flew them out of Pensacola in WWII for ASW.

Didn't like them so much.

He told me they lost someone from one of the blisters who wasn't belted in when they hit an air pocket. Grimm times.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I love this idea but I am not holding my breath.

There's defiantly some romanticism here, however the anti-air/air denial bubble that the ChiComs can cast over a wide swath of the Pacific, makes float-planes and flying boats vulnerable.

USSOCOM has put some budget towards a study of putting pontoons onto a MC-130, this was spur'd on by some crew exchanges with Japan's US-2, which is a hybrid of the beloved Catalina and the Hercules. The need for a long-range SAR platform (Osprey's are not allowed to do at-sea rescue due to the downdrafts) is still out there.

Had a neighbor/friend that was a mechanic on the PBY’s in the Pacific during the war. He was sent wherever they needed him. Kind of the “go to” guy when there was a problem. Apparently was all over the islands. Loved those planes. Was a farmer before the war. Very quiet, likeable guy.

Harry Miller.

The romantic in me loves the idea. I’ve never flown in one but, as a kid building scale Monogram and Revell model kits in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, I thought the Catalina was one of the coolest planes out of WW2 after the Corsair.

Re: the Strawberry 5 reference - I know I caught the film on TV. Feels like NBC ran it as maybe a two-nighter thing? I may be mis-remembering that; regardless, loved the movie.

A C-130 converted to sea landings would be incredible and maybe more viable than bringing back the PBY though I would be quite interested in seeing both of the end results.

My father’s flight hours piloting the C-130 adds up to almost an entire year in the air with that plane. A variant that could land on water seems like the obvious choice for SAR missions and special operations during future conflicts in the pacific region.

What a C-130 with pontoons might look like. . I’d take something like this over a PBY as it would be a perfect flying beach house/ surf spot locator. I suppose it has other useful Military applications as well.

Reliable, very robust, excellent range and able to carry a decent payload.