The Return of the Catalina.

[yaktamer]

Very cool. My dad served in the Navy in WWII, stationed in Central America (in support of defense of the Canal). On his days off from his usual duty, he'd volunteer to ride as an observer on a Catalina. I still have his flight logbook. But, as others have, I too saw the thread title and thought of this:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__TtJcjRCK8&t=1s[/ame]

 

[BSA1]

Either way would work for me...Here's a pic of my Dad (Army) with a navy PBY on Attu during WWII......Ben

With the Marines changing it's tactics and stationing small teams of Marines spread out on different islands the seaplane makes a lot of sense for troop movement and resupply. The CAT is a bigger airplane than I thought it was which makes it a slow, big target. I wonder how well modern electronic countermeasures will protect it from detection. The idea of the seaplane inserting troops and supplies in small, spread out islands is interesting but not sure how viable it is.

The history of the Black Cats in W.W.II is exciting to learn about.

 

[rwsmith]

We have nice....

...level beaches here. Maybe we will see one crawl out locally, here

 

[fordson]

The Sea Survival School aboard NAS Pensacola had a full sized cut-away PBY fuselage on display. Quite an impressive size aircraft. If I remember correctly, the early -1 models had the flight engineer station in the parasol beneath the wing from where he would operate the throttles. Much like aboard ship (Naval ships, don't you know), the pilot would call for a power setting and the FE would set the throttles. That was eventually changed, as things tend to happen much faster in aircraft then ships, and the throttles relocated to the cockpit where they belong.

 

[WR Moore]

Looking at the video of the Japanese prototype, they need to raise the sill level of that side door. Otherwise, an interesting concept, but the one article misses the point that the C-130 series doesn't need long, paved runways in the first place.

Live near a LARGE lake, there are/were several Caprioni flying boats resident. Fascinating watching them land/take off. The landing is definitely different than for a plane with wheels.

 

[rockquarry]

And I was expecting a thread about salad dressing.

Fortunately, this one is much more interesting.

Nasty. Do they still make that stuff?

 

[Rustyt1953]

Occasionally my youngest daughter makes baked Polynesian chicken using Catalina dressing as a base ingredient for her glaze. It is down right tasty.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

Russia has been flying the BE-200 for about 20 years.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfT2EUgsfOk[/ame]

 

[swsig]

Nasty. Do they still make that stuff?

I think so. I got the photo from a Walmart website. Catalina dressing was a staple of many dinners and picnic meals I ate in the 1950s. I liked it, but it has long been supplanted by better dressings. My current favorite is Ken's Vidalia Onion dressing.

Back on topic, in the '80s I had a friend who was a pilot for American Airlines. When he said he'd been in the Navy, I asked him what he'd flown. He answered a Catalina. I told him he didn't look that old, but the Navy flew Catalinas until 1957.

 

[walnutred]

During WW2 and Korea my dad spent time on TBMs and PBYs. Rear gunner on the TBM and eventually flight engineer on the PBY. He was TRAINED as an aircraft mechanic but shortage of air crews in the Pacific created unexpected openings for those interested. PBY time was spent was anti sub patrols and air sea rescue.