The consolidated PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile and successful flying boat/amphibian ever built, serving not just with the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard during the Second World War, but also with the air forces of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the Danes, Free French and Norwegians as well as in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and elsewhere. With a remarkable lifting capacity and endurance, this long-range twin-engine aircraft could absorb a great deal of punishment and still return home after flights lasting an entire day and covering thousands of miles. It was employed as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, as a bomber and torpedo-bomber, as an anti submarine weapon, as a mine layer, as a special operations machine and as a search-and-rescue craft by day and night. It ferried stores, mail and people - many of them sick and injured - across the world's oceans. In this book Andrew Hendrie tells the story of the "Flying Cats", of their achievements and exploits, of the heroism of many of the crews and the problems they had to endure.

The consolidated PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile and successful flying boat/amphibian ever built, serving not just with the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard during World War II but also with the air forces of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the Danes, Free French and Norwegians as well as in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and elsewhere. With a remarkable lifting capacity and endurance, this long-range twin-engined aircraft could absorb a great deal of punishment and still return home after flights lasting an entire day and covering thousands of miles.

For years, reaching the paradise destination of Santa Catalina Island, located miles out in the Pacific Ocean, was possible primarily by steamship. But as early as 1912, the first amphibious airplane landed in Avalon Bay, and the first air-passenger service was introduced in 1919. Seaplane service thrived on Catalina, and aircraft engine roars became a distinctive memory for many residents, along with the thrill of crossing the channel by plane and landing on the water. The "Airport in the Sky" opened in 1946, with United Airlines operating DC-3s, followed by other airlines operating land-based planes. Today helicopters carry passengers across the San Pedro Channel in less than 15 minutes. This unique photographic history covers public air transportation to and from Southern California's iconic island, featuring memories and stories from residents, visitors, and airline employees.

Pilotens instruktionsbog (Flight Manual) for føring af det amerikanske amfibiefly fra 2. verdenskrig, Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina.

A tale of a lifelong passion for a WWII aircraft that changed the author’s life: “It is almost like an adventure novel except it is true” (Air Classics). This book tells the story of a Dutch boy who grew up during the 1950s in postwar Borneo, where he had frequent encounters with an airplane, the Douglas DC-3, a.k.a. the C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, of World War II fame. For a young boy living in a remote jungle community, the aircraft reached the proportions of a romantic icon as the essential lifeline to a bigger world for him, the beginning of a special bond. In 1957, his family left the island and all its residual wreckage of World War II, and he attended college in The Hague. After graduation, he started a career as a corporate executive—and met the aircraft again during business trips to the Americas. His childhood passion for the Dakota flared up anew, and the fascination pulled like a magnet. As if predestined, or maybe just looking for an excuse to come closer, he began a business to salvage and convert Dakota parts, which meant first of all finding them. As the demand for these war relic parts and cockpits soared, he began to travel the world to track down surplus, crashed, or derelict Dakotas. He ventured deeper and deeper into remote mountains, jungles, savannas, and the seas where the planes are found, usually as ghostly wrecks but sometimes still in full commercial operation. In hunting the mythical Dakota, he often encountered intimidating or dicey situations in countries plagued by wars or revolts, others by arms and narcotics trafficking, warlords, and conmen. The stories of these expeditions take the reader to some of the remotest spots in the world, but once there, one is often greeted by the comfort of what was once the West’s apex in transportation—however now haunted by the courageous airmen of the past.

Several books have been written about US naval patrol aviation in World War 2, but none do full justice to the role played by patrol squadrons of the US Navy in the longest, most bitterly fought campaign of the war - the Battle of the Atlantic. From the Arctic to the Equator, anti-submarine aircraft of the US Navy patrolled both sides of the stormy Atlantic alongside their allied counterparts, escorting merchant shipping through submarine-infested waters - the crucial lifeline from the United States to Great Britain and the Mediterranean, and staging troops and supplies for the ultimate liberation of North Africa and Europe. This book details the PBY Catalina, without contest the most successful flying boat ever designed, and a key element in the success of the Atlantic War.

The consolidated PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile and successful flying boat/amphibian ever built, serving not just with the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard during the Second World War, but also with the air forces of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the Danes, Free French and Norwegians as well as in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and elsewhere. With a remarkable lifting capacity and endurance, this long-range twin-engine aircraft could absorb a great deal of punishment and still return home after flights lasting an entire day and covering thousands of miles. It was employed as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, as a bomber and torpedo-bomber, as an anti submarine weapon, as a mine layer, as a special operations machine and as a search-and-rescue craft by day and night. It ferried stores, mail and people - many of them sick and injured - across the world's oceans. In this book Andrew Hendrie tells the story of the "Flying Cats", of their achievements and exploits, of the heroism of many of the crews and the problems they had to endure.