Consolidated PBY Catalina

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the main long range reconnaissance aircraft in use with the US Navy in the first half of the Second World War
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the main long range reconnaissance aircraft in use with the US Navy in the first half of the Second World War. We now add articles on the development of the PBY Catalina, the combat career of the Consolidated PBY Catalina with the US Navy and with the RAF, and lists of US Navy PBY Squadrons and RAF Catalina Squadrons that used the aircraft.
Canada developed a very sizable aircraft industry during the Second World War, and one of the aircraft it produced in large numbers was the Consolidated Catalina.
The Consolidated PBY-1 was the first production version of the Consolidated Catalina, which would be produced in far larger numbers than any other flying boat
The Consolidated PBY-2 was the second production version of the Catalina flying boat, and was very similar to the PBY-1, the main differences being on the tail.
The Consolidated PBY-3 differed from the previous version of the Catalina in having more powerful 900hp R-1830-66 Twin Wasp engines in place of the 850hp engines used on the PBY-2.
The Consolidated PBY-4 was the last of the early versions of the Catalina fly boat, each of which was ordered in small numbers in the period before the Second World War.
The Consolidated PBY-5 was the first version of the Catalina to be produced in large numbers, and the last to be a pure flying boat, and yet at the start of 1939 it had looked as if the PBY-4 was to be the final production version of the aircraft.
The Consolidated PBY-5A was the first version of the Catalina to be equipped with wheeled landing gear, turning it from a pure flying boat into an amphibian, capable of operating from sea and land bases.
The Consolidated PBY-6A was the last production version of the Catalina amphibian, and combined the features introduced during the production run of the PBY-5A with the new tail designed for the PBN-1 Nomad
The Consolidated OA-10 was the USAAF’s designation for the Catalina flying boat, used by the air force for air-sea rescue duties in the vast expanses of the Pacific.
The Naval Aircraft Factory PBN-1 Nomad was an improved version of the Consolidated Catalina, produced by the same facility that had produced the design for the XPY-1, the first flying boat to be produced by Consolidated and a direct ancestor of the Catalina.