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| Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum - Consolidated PBY-5A Canso
Bill Maloney 1/22/2010 |
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Consolidated PBY Catalina Variants at other Aviation Museums |
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| Another PBY Catalina can be found at the American Air Power Museum in Farmingdale, NY | One more PBY Catalina at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, NY |
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| PBY Catalina at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH | Consolidated PBY Canso at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
Length: 63 feet, 10 inches
Wingspan: 104 feet, 0 inch
Height: 20 feet, 1 inches
Crew: 9
Weight: Empty - 6,500lbs Max Takeoff - 36,400lbs
Max Speed: 174mph at 7,000 feet
Cruise Speed: 120 mph
Range: 2,325 miles
Service Ceiling: 22,400 feet
Fuel Capacity: 1,750 gallons internally
Powerplant: Two Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Radial engines 1,200 hp each
Armament:
2 50cal Browning Machine Guns in flexible waist positions
2 30cal Browning Machine Guns, one in the nose turret, the other in a rear ventral hatch
Up to 8,000lbs of bombs externally
First Flight: March 20, 1935
Cost: $90,000
As well as being a fabled naval reconnaisance and rescue aircraft, the PBY Catalina was used by the Cousteau Society. Philippe Cousteau had loved flying their PBY. Unfortunately he was killed in their Catalina in a flying accident. While doing a high speed taxi test run in the Tagus river in Portugal in 1979, the PBY struck a submerged sand bar. The impact caused the aircraft to nose over and flip onto its back. The wing broke free from the fuselage and the left Pratt & Whitney radial engine sheared off its mount. The engine or more likely the propeller came though the pilot's side of the cockpit, killing Philippe. Cousteau was the only fatality out of 8 on board. The Catalina was a complete write off.
Here's some PBY Canso Youtube footage of this very PBY. More PBY Canso Youtube video of a Canso running up its engines. This Youtube PBY video is pretty darned amusing.
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