CATALINA AIRCRAFTPBY Catalina was an American and Canadian-built flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s. PB stands for Patrol Bomber, with Y being Consolidated Aircraft’s manufacturer identification. It could be equipped with depth charges, bombs, torpedoes, and .50 caliber machine guns and was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. The PBY Catalina was the most successful flying boat ever produced. First flown in March 1935, they were in production for over ten years and were designed and built by the American aircraft manufacturers, Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. The Catalina in RAAF service, despite its vulnerability due to lack of speed, was a front line aircraft effectively taking the fight to the Japanese through its long distance mine laying flights.
The PBY was the first US aircraft to carry radar and fulfilled diverse missions including torpedo-bomber, transport and glider tug. Famous were the "Black Cat" Catalina’s which, painted matt black, roamed the western Pacific from December 1942 finding Japanese ships by radar at night and picking Allied survivors from ships and aircraft in boats and dinghies. RAAF Catalinas were famous for their precision laying of mines in enemy water ways and harbors. About 3300 Catalinas were produced and several are still flying today as water bombers, flying geological surveys, carrying people, supplies and equipment to inaccessible areas and even flying sportsmen into remote areas for hunting and fishing.
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DESCRIPTION
The Catalina is a twin-engine high winged amphibious monoplane with
retractable wing tip floats. It features an almost cantilevered wing
mounted above a shallow but broad hull on a central pylon housing the
flight engineer. The wing has a rectangular centre section and tapered
outer panels, all of stressed-skin all-metal construction, though the
ailerons and trailing edges are fabric-skinned. A unique feature is the
wing-tip floats, which are mounted on pivoted frames, which can be retracted
electrically so that in flight the floats form the wingtips. The hull
is also all-metal, with a broad semicircular upper surface.
The bow has a mooring compartment and transparent sighting window with
a roller blind giving seawater protection. A turret all-round window
is fitted in the upper bow. The two pilots sit side-by-side in a wide
cockpit with large windows all round. Left and right gunner stations
comprise blister windows on the waist of the hull behind the wing. The
tail is of a tall design with the horizontal tail mounted well up the
single fin. The power plant comprises a pair of two-row Pratt & Whitney
Twin Wasp engines neatly cowled on the centre section with cooling gills
and driving Hamilton variable-pitch propellers.
The PBY was one of the first US aircraft to carry radar. At first this was a metric wave radar with arrays of dipole antennas on the wings, and later a centimetric radar in a fairing on top of the cockpit. A Leigh light was installed under the wing.
HISTORY OF VH-CAT
Our PBY6A Catalina now registered VH-CAT started life as Serial No. 46665 on Consolidated’s New Orleans production line in 1945 as part of an order for the US Navy. It flew with that air arm as BU46665 and briefly became N9555C when finally declared surplus to requirements in August, 1956. It had previously been in storage since the early-1950s.
The American registration was brief as, by 1957, it had been transferred to the Chilean civil register as CC-CNG. The registered owners were TRANSA who did not use CC-CNG and it remained in storage until 1959 when it was bought by Roberto Parrague's ASPAR, becoming CC-CNP in the process. Snr Parrague named CC-CNP “Manutara II” (refer note below).
In 1970 Manutara II, CC-CNP was ferried to Canada for conversion to a water bomber so that ASPAR could diversify into the forest fire fighting business. In this new role, CC-CNP was first given the tanker number '65' but later became '35'. CC-CNP flew to Spain in July, 1988 and remained there flying under charter to ICONA.
In the summer of 1995, the Spanish markings EC-FXN were taken up but a projected contract in Sweden fell through. Prior to this re-registration, temporary Spanish marks EC-593 were allocated although it is not known if they were worn.
By the end of the decade, the Chilean registration CC-CNP had been restored and it was operating in Portugal, owned by Victor de Brito of Aerocondor but still with its name Manutara II.
As a fire bomber its role was short lived as the more efficient special purpose Canadian CL415 aircraft came on to the market and were awarded the contract.
Note
On his visit to Easter Island in 1951, PG Taylor noticed a derelict Catalina there called “Manutara” but did not realise the significance of this.
Some years previously, Commandante Roberto Parrague had attempted a South Pacific crossing in a Chilean military Catalina which he had named Manutara after the bird of the same name, which according to legend, flew to Easter Island, laid one egg and died. The people of Easter Island shook their heads and warned that according to the legend, Manutara would never leave the island. During the take off for the return journey the rough conditions caused the wing to break and she did in fact die there. Her broken body was there when PG Taylor arrived and when he saw her he was glad he had equipped Frigate Bird II with JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) rockets.
PG Taylor’s Catalina which he flew to Chile, and is now in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney was called Frigate Bird II after his first crossing from Mexico to Australia via Tahiti in the Catalina “Frigate Bird”.
PG Taylor with so many ocean crossings under his belt had the greatest respect for the Frigate birds, which inhabited the vast oceans of the world forever skimming the wave tops and seemingly never to rest.
PG Taylor met and had many discussions in Valparaiso with Commandante Roberto Parrague where he learned that Manutara was the Chilean name for Frigate Bird! In honor of Manutara he had named CC-CNP “Manutara II”.
CC-CNP (Manutara II) has been waiting ever since in the Sierra Mountains of Portugal for the Catalina Veterans of Rathmines Australia to save her from laying one egg and dying.