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The Consolidated PBY Catalina – Meet the Flying Boat that Helped the Allies Win WW2

“ It would serve in every maritime theatre of the war while performing an array of missions, from reconnaissance and search-and-rescue to sub-hunting and anti-shipping.”

By James Brun

THE CONSOLIDATED PBY was not one of the Second World War’s more glamorous warplanes; it was a slow and ungainly, twin-engine “ flying boat .” Yet despite its odd appearance, it would go on to become the most numerous and successful amphibious float plane in history. It would serve in every maritime theatre of the war while performing an array of missions, from reconnaissance and search-and-rescue to sub-hunting and anti-shipping.

Here are seven amazing facts about the Catalina PBY, an aircraft that patrolled the vast reaches of the world’s oceans, looking for an enemy to track, report, or destroy.

It entered service before WW2

The PBY line of flying boats was conceived in 1933 in Buffalo, New York. It was originally designed as a long-range patrol bomber, intended for use to sink shipping and disrupt enemy sea lines of communication. The prototype first flew from Lake Erie in 1935 and by 1936 the aircraft was in service with the U.S. Navy. “PB” stands for Patrol Bomber, with “Y” being Consolidated Aircraft Corporation ’s manufacturer identification. Amphibious variants with retractable landing gear were appended by the suffix A, as in PBY-A.

It was big and slow, but had amazing endurance

She was 63 feet (20 metres) long, 19 feet (six metres) high, with a 104-foot (31 metre) wingspan. The PBY’s two Pratt & Whitney 1,200 horse power radial engines were maximized for range and endurance, and could cruise a distance of over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) at 125 m.p.h. (200 km/h), with a maximum speed of 180 m.p.h. (288 km/h). The airplane had an operating ceiling of over 15,000 feet, (4,400 metres) and under the right conditions, could stay in the air for up to 20 hours.

It was a true multitasker

The PBY was a jack-of-all-trades. A critical asset in the Pacific, Caribbean, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arctic theatres of operation, the aircraft’s mission set included dropping anti-shipping mines, aerial reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, search and rescue, anti-submarine patrol, bombing, transport and even troop insertion.

Although lightly armed, it carried the latest technology

A polyvalent warrior, the PBY could be armed with four 1,000-pound bombs, eight depth charges, or two torpedoes attached at drop points beneath the wings. For defence against enemy aircraft, PBYs carried four machine guns: two .50 calibre Brownings on either side of the fuselage at the waist; one .30 calibre in the nose. A second .30 calibre was situated along the bottom of the hull in the ventral position. Interestingly, PBYs were among the first American aircraft fitted with radar to search for surface ships and aid in navigation. The PBY was also the first aircraft equipped with magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) equipment to help locate submerged submarines.

PBY crews worked round the clock

A typical PBY crew included nine officers and men. Typically, the plane commander, co-pilot, third pilot and navigator were all commissioned. Any of these could act as bombardier when not flying the plane. The enlisted men were mechanics and signalmen. These crew-members normally rotated through manning the guns when not engaged in their primary duties. On long-range patrols, crews rotated through watches. Responsibilities, such as making coffee and distributing meals, were conducted by whomever was off duty.

Catalinas flew for many Allied nations

The PBY was the most numerous aircraft of its kind. More than 3,300 were built before production ended in 1945. Catalinas served in the armed forces of the U.S., Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, the Soviet Union and Brazil. A Canadian-made version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina was dubbed the Canso. Cansos were built in Vancouver by Boeing Aircraft of Canada and in Montreal by Canadian Vickers Ltd . Cansos operated on coastal patrols in the Pacific and Atlantic hunting submarines and protecting convoys and merchant shipping. The Canso airframe was operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) until 1962.

The PBY’s Greatest Hits

The PBY was an essential component of some of the most dramatic moments of the Second World War. This brief collection of wartime narratives illustrates the PBY’s wide range of diverse roles.

During the May, 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait , the German battleship Bismarck sunk HMS Hood , and damaged HMS Prince of Wales . Amid the subsequent hunt for the Bismarck , it was a RAF Catalina that first spotted the enemy warship west of Brest on May 26. The PBY-5 was piloted by Ensign Leonard B. “Tuck” Smith of the U.S. Navy, on loan with the RAF to help train British pilots to fly the aircraft. Smith sighted the Bismarck and a contact report was disseminated. The sighting directly resulted in the destruction of the infamous battleship by the Royal Navy.

On April 4 , 1942, a RCAF squadron leader named Leonard Birchall was patrolling south of Ceylon in his Catalina PBY when he spotted a Japanese carrier fleet steaming for the island, which was home of the Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet. Birchall’s crew alerted Allied forces before their plane was shot down by a group of Zeros launched from a Japanese carrier. The fighters strafed Birchall’s downed aircraft in the sea, killing three members of his crew. The remaining six survivors, including Birchall, were picked up by a Japanese destroyer and taken prisoner. Birchall spent the rest of the war in a Japanese prison camp, but his crews’ signal alerted the defenders of Ceylon to prepare for the impending attack. For his actions, Leonard Birchall is remembered today as the “Saviour of Ceylon.”

On June 3 , 1942, U.S. Navy Ensign Jack Reid of PBY patrol squadron VPB-44 located elements of the Japanese carrier fleet steaming for the Midway Atoll. The next day, another American PBY discovered the main Japanese fleet, facilitating the decisive battle that saw the U.S. Navy sink four Japanese carriers, thereby turning the tide of the Pacific War.

In October, 1942 , U.S. Navy PBYs attacked enemy ground forces and flew bombing raids against Japanese ships, all at night, during the Guadalcanal campaign . Soot residue from burnt oil was added to soap and washed over the fuselage of the PBYs, turning them black and making them difficult to spot in the darkness. This technique proved so effective that within months, new PBYs landing on Guadalcanal arrived painted black and became known as the “Black Cats.”

On June 24 , 1944 RCAF Flight Lieutenant David E. Hornell and his Canso destroyed the German submarine U-1225 in the North Atlantic. Hornell’s aircraft was shot down during the engagement and he and his crew spent over 20 hours in the frigid sea before being rescued. Hornell succumbed to exposure following his rescue and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his heroism.

A U.S. Marine was shot down while attacking the Japanese fortress at Rabaul Harbour in 1944. The pilot was badly burned, temporarily blinded, and being shot at by Japanese forces ashore. A Navy PBY was ordered into the harbour to rescue the wounded Marine. The flying boats gunner stripped down to rescue the wounded man while under fire. The iconic photo was taken by Horace Bristol as the gunner got back to his station, under enemy fire, with no time to change back into his clothes before manning his weapon. The identity of the ‘naked gunner’ has never been established.

On July 30 , 1945, two torpedoes launched from a Japanese submarine slammed into the side of USS Indianapolis , days after she completed her secret mission to deliver enriched uranium and other parts of the Hiroshima bomb to Tinian Island. Within minutes, the heavy cruiser was gone. More than 900 of Indianapolis’ crew escaped the sinking ship but remained in the water for days; 600 would die of thirst, hunger, exposure and shark attacks. After the 316 remaining sailors were spotted by a Lockheed PV-1 Venture, a PBY-5 arrived on Aug. 2 to begin picking survivors. The plane was flown by Lieutenant Commander Robert Marks . He had orders not to land in the open ocean, but rather to drop life-rafts. He polled his crew, and they agreed to land the aircraft in the 4 metre swells. Fifty-six survivors were loaded onto the plane, but the aircraft was damaged by the landing and unable to fly. After nightfall, the first of seven rescue ships arrived.

Post-War Cats

Catalinas would continue to serve in a number of nations’ navies and air forces for decades after the Second World War; Brazil, for example, continued to operate the PBY until 1982. Surplus models would later be put to work in North America as forest fire water bombers. As many as 80 Catalinas remain as museum pieces in more than a dozen countries; at least 20 are still airworthy and make regular appearances at air shows.

James Brun is an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and regular contributor to MilitaryHistoryNow.com. For his daily tweets of rare and fascinating World War Two photos, follow him at @lebrunjames81

Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, “Consolidated PBY-5A Canso” https://www.warplane.com/aircraft/collection/details.aspx?aircraftId=11 (Accessed 30 September 2020).

Canadian Aviation and Space Museum, “Consolidated PBY-5A Canso A” https://ingeniumcanada.org/artifact/consolidated-pby-5a-canso-a (Accessed 30 September 2020).

The Catalina Preservation Society, “Specifications” http://pbycatalina.com/specifications/ (Accessed 30 September 2020).

National Naval Aviation Museum “PBY 5A Catalina” https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/aircraft/pby-5a-catalina/ (Accessed 30 September 2020).

Polmar, Norman. “Historic Aircraft.” Naval History 18, no. 5 (10, 2004): 14-15. https://search-proquest-com.cfc.idm.oclc.org/docview/203520587?accountid=9867 .

Rare Historical Photos, “The naked gunner, Rescue at Rabaul, 1944” https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/naked-gunner-rescue-rabaul-1944/ (Accessed 30 September 2020).

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, “Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina” https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/consolidated-pby-5-catalina/nasm_A19730277000 (Accessed 30 September 2020).

Wilkinson, Stephan. 2013. “Cat Tales.” Aviation History 23 (5): 24–31. http://search.ebscohost.com.cfc.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&AN=85414212&site=ehost-live&scope=site .

1 thought on “ The Consolidated PBY Catalina – Meet the Flying Boat that Helped the Allies Win WW2 ”

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Cat Tales: The story of World War II’s PBY Flying Boat

For first flights, 1935 was a vintage year.

It saw the arrival of three enormously capable, ahead-of-their-time airplanes that played a huge part in winning World War II: the Boeing B-17, Douglas DC-3/C-47 and Consolidated PBY flying boat , later to become an amphibian as well.

The deeds of the Flying Fortress and C-47 are widely known, but the PBY casts a less obvious shadow across wartime history.

And it doesn’t help that the “Pigboat,” as some of its admirers grudgingly call it, didn’t have the warlike mien of the iconic B-17 or the rugged grace of the C-47.

Well, rugged it had … grace, not so much.

But never mind, the PBY, like all great objects of industrial design, exuded an air of absolute purposefulness.

The Consolidated team that limned its lines knew exactly what to include and what to leave off: a shapely, minimal hull rather than a standard flying boat barge; two tightly cowled and wing-faired engines close to the centerline, ideal for single-engine handling, though they made directional control on the water a bit difficult; a towering, fish-tail vertical fin to help with the steering both on the water and in the air; clean, cantilever, strutless horizontal stabilizers; and the colossal, fuel-fat wing that gave the PBY range and endurance far beyond anything else with propellers.

After all, the famous “Attu Zero,” the largely undamaged example of the Japanese navy’s mythic fighter, was discovered by an airsick crewman who had leaned into his PBY’s blister and opened it to vomit just as the crashed Mitsubishi flashed below him.

A Consolidated PBY -5A Catalina Patrol Aircraft receives repairs to a gun blister at a Pacific Navy repair base, April 1945. (National Archives)

The PBY wasn’t without its teething troubles, however.

Though the prototype came in over 600 pounds lighter than the contract specified, with a stall speed 10 mph slower and a top speed 12 mph faster with a substantially shorter takeoff run, the vertical tailfin needed to be increased in size to add stability.

When the prototype made its first rough-water landings, in 4- and 5-foot seas, the impact of one full-stall touchdown blew out the bombardier’s window and the forward hatch, cracked the windshield, wrinkled the hull and damaged all six prop blades.

Consolidated pointed out that a less robust boat would have sunk, but it quickly added numerous stiffeners and gussets.

Having flown a B-17 of the same era, I can attest that one pilot’s “light and responsive” is another’s “at least I don’t have to go to the gym today.”

Open-sea landings required a practiced touch, since the Pigboat asked to be stalled on at minimum speed — a characteristic that soon made it such a superb rough-water boat. Popped rivets and even sprung seams were not uncommon, but crewmen learned to use the navigator’s pencils to plug rivet holes, and pilots soon realized that a touch-and-go or immediate beaching was the only defense against an open hull skin.

The PBY’s single shapely central pylon was a great leap forward, following first use of the concept on the slightly earlier Sikorsky S-42. The streamlined pylon put the wing-mounted engines well above spray height, since water can do a surprising amount of damage to prop tips moving at near-supersonic speeds.

More important, in combination with four short fuselage struts, it supported the PBY’s glory: the vast ironing board of a wing that was both an enormous fuel tank and a strong, efficient lifting surface. With a beefy continuous I-beam spar and internal bracing, the wing was actually semi-cantilevered.

Consolidated PBY-5 patrol bombers fly in formation in the Hawaiian area, circa November 1941. These planes, from Patrol Squadron 14 (VP-14), arrived on Oahu on 23 November 1941. The plane closest to the camera is 14-P-1, which on 7 December 1941 was flown during the attack by the destroyer Ward on a Japanese midget submarine. (National Archives)

At the time, the PBY was the cleanest flying boat ever designed, at least when it came to drag.

The pylon was just wide enough to serve as the military flight engineer’s lofty but lonely office, his seat suspended from the wing above him like a playground swing.

With a window on each side, it gave him a good view of the nacelles, where any oil leakage would first show up. Many civil and commercial PBYs in use all over the world after WWII, however, dispensed with flight engineers and moved all the controls and engine gauges to the cockpit.

Another PBY innovation was totally retractable wing floats, each of which swung out and upward to fair neatly into the wing, the float itself morphing into a wingtip.

Had the usage existed at the time, this feature would have been pronounced “cool”…but as with so many cool things, it wasn’t particularly effective.

A PBY’s cruise speed remained about the same whether the floats were extended or retracted, though PBY pilots had to be ready to counteract substantial yaw whenever the tip floats were in motion, since each float often moved asymmetrically, answering to its own retraction system.

With the floats down, aileron effectiveness was also substantially decreased.

Aviation machinist's mates work on the starboard engine of a VP-31 Consolidated PBY-5A "Catalina" patrol bomber at an East Coast naval air station, circa 1942. Note radar antennas under the plane's wing. (National Archives)

The PBY’s lead designer, Consolidated’s Isaac Machlin Laddon, was a brilliant engineer, though he is not as well known as Kelly Johnson, Ed Heinemann and Alexander Kartveli, who also designed war-winners. “Mac”Laddon was responsible not only for the PBY but the B-24, B-36 and postwar Convair 240/340/440 series of twin-engine airliners.

A wet wing means that the wing skin itself is the fuel tank, with no need for separate fuel tanks or bladders to be inserted into bays between ribs and spars — a substantial weight-saving feature, but one that of course requires that every seam and rivet be sealed or gasketed.

In the case of the PBY, this considerable effort meant half a pound saved per gallon of fuel, or 875 pounds pared.

PBYs in the Solomons. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)

Early PBYs had simple beaching gear — external wheels and struts that were tugged off manually by a swimsuited launching crew once the airplane had been trundled down a ramp and was afloat in the water. This was how Mac Laddon wanted it — simple, no extra weight, no complex retraction system, no internal space given up to wheel wells.

His boss Reuben Fleet, Consolidated’s founder and president, thought flying boats should carry “internal beaching gear” everywhere they went, so they could operate independently without the need for a beaching crew. So a PBY-4 was fitted with retractable gear that was deemed usable only for emergency runway use at light weights, and it became the prototype XPBY-5.

Converting it into rugged, reliable, full-time landing gear was no small undertaking. It required substantial strengthening of the hull as well as a powerful hydraulic system, and it wasn’t easy to get good ground handling out of narrow-tread main gear sitting under a tippy 14-ton airplane with a high center of gravity. But the PBY-5A went on to become what is generally considered to be the ultimate variant of Consolidated’s flying boat.

The U.S. Navy adopted the name several years later, so it’s correct to call a Navy airplane a PBY Catalina, but there’s no such thing in England, any more than there is an F4F Martlet, a C-47 Dakota or any other dual U.S./British designation; the RAF never used any of the U.S. alphanumeric designators.

Despite their long history of building successful seaplanes and flying boats, the British ended up buying some 700 Catalinas to serve alongside far larger Short Sunderlands as the RAF’s primary Coastal Command and Far East patrol bombers. The Brits had hoped the Saunders-Roe Lerwick would fulfill the medium patrol role, but the ghastly, short-coupled Lerwick twin turned out to be unstable and unable to fly on one engine. It was everything the Catalina wasn’t—including relatively heavily armed, with two multi-gun power turrets.

The Canadians named their PBYs Cansos, after a river in Nova Scotia.

One groaner has it that when RCAF pilots first saw a PBY, they said, “This thing can’t fly,” and the engineers answered, “It can so.”

A "Black Cat" PBY Catalina skims the waters of San Pedro Bay off Samar Island, in the Philippines. The Black Cat Squadron to which it belongs, VPB-34, was awarded the Presidential Citation. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)

Late in the war the Naval Aircraft Factory introduced an improved model it called the PBN-1 Nomad, most of which ended up going to the Soviets.

Well before the Nomad, however, there were the informally named Black Cats — Pacific patrol bombers that flew mainly at night and were painted overall flat black.

With a Japanese invasion a very real threat early in the war, RAAF Catalina coastal patrols and missions into the Solomons were crucial, and when the Allies soon went on the offensive, Aussie Cats ranged as far as the coast of China, mine-laying and night-bombing.

It’s said that when the RAAF Catalina crews ran out of bombs, they threw out beer bottles with razor blades inserted in the necks. The bottles whistled as they fell in the dark, which was designed to fright the Japanese.

A Brazilian Air Force PBY Squadron's officers sit on the wing of one of the IR PBY CATALINA Aircraft, circa 1945. They are being trained by U. S. Navy pilots. (National Archives)

Not many civilians knew what a PBY was until the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.

That changed when hundreds of newspaper photos showed the crumpled, blazing PBYs of the six Navy patrol squadrons based at Kaneohe Naval Air Station and Ford Island. They had been 81 fine airplanes, most of them new.

Only four flyable Catalinas survived, three of them because they had been aloft at the time of the Japanese attack. One of those became the first U.S. aircraft to attack the Japanese, when it bombed a midget submarine an hour before the main assault.

The Cats and other PBYs were surprisingly effective bombers, under the right conditions.

Of the 60 Axis submarines sunk by the Navy in all theaters of the war, 25 went down under bombs from PBYs, plus one spotted by a PBY but sunk by a destroyer.

Another 13 were sunk by PB4Ys — the Navy version of the B-24 Liberator — giving Consolidated aircraft credit for almost two-thirds of all subs sunk by the U.S. in WWII.

More were deep-sixed by RAF Coastal Command Catalinas and Liberators, but a British Catalina’s most celebrated feat was spotting the battleship Bismarck after it sank the Royal Navy battle cruiser Hood and scuttled away under cover of fog.

The Cat didn’t sink the Bismarck , but appropriately, the critical, crippling blow was left to another antique, the Fairey Swordfish.

Sailors stand amid wrecked planes at the Ford Island seaplane base, watching as the destroyer Shaw explodes in the center background, 7 December 1941. The battleship Nevada is visible in the middle background, with its bow headed toward the left. Planes present include PBY, OS2U and SOC types. Wrecked wing in the foreground is from a PBY. (National Archives)

The PBY’s bombing career started less auspiciously.

The first-ever U.S. offensive airstrike of the Pacific War, which came nearly four months before the Doolittle Raid, was flown by six PBYs out of Ambon Island, in the Dutch East Indies, to bomb a Japanese base at Jolo, in the southwest Philippines.

PBYs were the only airplanes with the range to make the 1,600-mile round trip. Four of the six were shot down by Japanese fighters, and in his post-action report, one of the surviving pilots wrote, “It is impossible to outrun fighters with a PBY-4. Under no circumstances should PBYs be allowed to come in contact with enemy fighters unless protected by fighter convoy.”

A PBY typically cruised at 105 to 125 mph, which meant that a well-armed Cessna could have taken one on.

Indeed the PBY’s most effective defensive maneuver quickly became lumbering toward the nearest cloud bank to hide. One Australian Catalina pilot even evaded Zeros by ducking into a volcanic ash plume.

The P4Y might have been an order of magnitude better than the PBY, but we’ll never know; certainly it was an order of magnitude uglier. It had a high-aspect-ratio, high-lift, low-drag, laminar-flow wing — the Davis airfoil that was soon to become famous on the B-24 — but it was designed to use the powerful but troublesome Wright R-3350 engines desperately needed for the B-29.

The War Department canceled the P4Y contract after just one prototype was built, and the Louisiana factory that was built to crank out Corregidors ended up building yet more Catalinas.

The crew of the Patrol Squadron 44 (VP-44) PBY-5A Catalina patrol bomber that found the approaching Japanese fleet's Midway Occupation Force on the morning of 3 June 1942. (National Archives)

For U.S. Catalinas, the equivalent of the RAF’s sink-the- Bismarck moment was the brief break in Pacific clouds through which a Navy PBY crew saw the Japanese fleet racing toward Midway.

In fact, the same phrases reappear in accounts of nearly every WWII naval battle, Atlantic and Pacific: “A PBY spotted the carrier….While Catalinas shadowed the fleet through the night….As the PBY followed the phosphorescent wakes….When the fog suddenly lifted, the PBY saw the picket destroyers….”

Few such slugfests started without at least one PBY tracking the combatants from above.

Particularly in the Pacific theater, air-sea rescue PBYs (called “Dumbos”) retrieved thousands of ditched pilots and shipwrecked seamen, often under fire and usually in seas that would have trashed a lesser boat.

One Dumbo landed three times to pick up downed bomber crews and eventually took off with 25 extra men aboard; for that mission, Navy Lt. Nathan Gordon became the only PBY pilot to be awarded a Medal of Honor.

Another Cat needed a three-mile takeoff run to lift a total of 63, including its own crew, and the pounding probably popped half the rivets in the hull. But the record goes to the Australian Catalina that carried 87 Dutch sailors — standing room only, thank you — after Japanese bombers mauled their freighter.

With 15,000 pounds of passengers alone, to say nothing of the airplane’s fuel and crew weight, that put the RAAF PBY well over gross, but the Cat’s basic weight-and-balance rule was that if the payload hadn’t yet sunk the boat, it would somehow take off.

A Patrol Bombing Squadron 52 (VPB-52) PBY-5 flying boat alongside a local outrigger canoe, during a rescue mission to the northwest end of McCluer Gulf in New Guinea, 13 August 1944. Women and children in the canoe are preparing to board the "Black Cat." Note very wide deck platform on the canoe. VPB-52 was then based at Biak. (National Archives)

Tragically, Philippe Cousteau was killed during a post-overhaul flight test of Calypso when it nosed over during a high speed water run on the Tagus River, in Portugal, in 1979.

Yet the PBY’s commercial career had started (false-started, actually) a good 40 years earlier, when Consolidated proposed using PBYs as transcontinental airliners that could use lakes and rivers en route for an emergency landing, if necessary.

Several American and British airlines did buy PBYs, but as survey airplanes, not passenger carriers.

In 1937 Consolidated did sell one very special civil PBY — it was officially a Model 28 — to rich, eccentric zoologist Richard Archbold.

A research associate at New York’s Museum of Natural History, Archbold was also a private pilot, so his Consolidated boat became, at least until the advent of converted-warbird corporate transports in the 1950s, the largest private plane in the world.

Archbold named the airplane Guba , a New Guinean word meaning “sudden storm,” and he intended to use it to continue his explorations of the Pacific island.

Guba ’s first major flight was a nonstop transcontinental trip from San Diego to New York in 1937, the first ever by a flying boat, establishing a speed record for the category that wasn’t broken until April 1944, by a Navy Martin Mars.

Archbold sold Guba to the Soviet government before going on to New Guinea, however, since they desperately needed the aircraft to do long-range searches for the Russian pioneer pilot Sigismund Levanevsky, who was lost in the Arctic (and never found).

Archbold immediately bought a second Model 28 — Guba II — and not only made it to New Guinea but carried on the rest of the way around the world for another record: the first-ever seaplane circumnavigation.

A PBY patrol bomber burning at Naval Air Station Kaneohe, Oahu, during the Japanese attack, 7 December 1941. (National Archives)

Another PBY record that has yet to be broken was set by a small cadre of Catalinas that were operated by the Australian airline Qantas during WWII.

They flew privileged passengers between Perth and Ceylon, near India, and from June 1943 to July 1945, several of them stayed aloft, nonstop and un-refueled, for more than 32 hours.

Super Airbuses and extended-range 747s fly faster and farther, but none has ever come close to making a longer-duration passenger flight.

After WWII, some surplus PBYs inevitably were converted into flying yachts, during the private-flying heyday that encouraged fantasies of flying cars, personal jetpacks, dad commuting in a Piper and seaplanes bobbing in lakes with fishermen on one float and bathing beauties on the other.

Luxury PBYs fit right in.

The Landseaire had 14-foot dinghies under each wing, hoisted to fit flush by cables that had once lifted torpedoes and bombs, and the gunners’ blisters were replaced by one-piece, blown-Lucite “flying bay windows” that invariably were photographed for various magazines (including a snarky Life feature) with a bikinied babe, drink in hand, stretched out on the interior foam-rubber cushion.

Equally well-known among modified PBYs was the Bird Innovator, the world’s only four-engine Cat.

A California company added a pair of 340-hp, geared Lycoming flat-6 engines outboard of the stock 1,200-hp Pratt radials to provide better performance at high gross weights as well as improved water maneuverability — the Lycs had reversible three-blade props — but apparently the Innovator was the answer to a question nobody had bothered to ask.

Only one was built, and a subsequent owner eventually removed the extra engines.

View of a Consolidated PBY "Catalina" bow turret (.30 cal. MG) banned, circa December 1942. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)

If there was one discordant note in the Cat’s refrain, it was that squared-off little greenhouse that gave the airplane the look of an angry hognose snake, a protuberance that seemed an add-on and if anything harked back to World War I observation airplanes with a freezing Frenchman standing upright in the bow.

On early PBYs, in fact, the “turret” was indeed nothing more than a semi-open bombardier/observer’s post. Guns came later — ineffective single or twin .30s in the nose, single .50s in each waist blister and sometimes a .30-cal firing from a belly hatch near the tail.

Today the PBY remains the best-known seaplane in the world. Until the last of them were recently retired, photos of Canso and Catalina water-bombers appeared regularly on the front pages of 21st-century newspapers, flying over forest fires in the U.S., Greece, Spain, France and elsewhere.

Many sources give figures of 4,000-plus total, but PBY expert David Legg comes up with a combined production run of 3,305. (Legg runs The Catalina Society— catalina.org.uk — which operates a restored PBY-5A based at Duxford, England.)

It was a fortuitous combination of talents that made the PBY effective despite its painfully slow airspeed and relatively ineffective armament.

The old P-boat was hell for stout, handled open-water landing and takeoffs with equanimity, would lift anything that could fit into it, could carry 2 tons of bombs or torpedoes and had butt-busting duration and loiter capability. Since the future of commercial flying boats and amphibs seems to stretch no farther than firefighting, we’ll surely never see its like again.

At this time in 1941, a Clipper plane was trying to get home the hard way — flying around the world!

The attack on pearl harbor forced one pan am crew to attempt a round-the-world flight to escape japanese warplanes. others weren't so lucky..

For further reading, Stephan Wilkinson recommends: PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat , by Roscoe Creed; Black Cats and Dumbos: WWII’s Fighting PBYs , by Mel Crocker; and Consolidated PBY Catalina: The Peacetime Record , by David Legg. This article was published originally in the May 2013 issue of Aviation History Magazine, a sister outlet of Navy Times. To subscribe, click here .

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Development

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the most-built flying boat of World War II: 3281 were built in the USA and Canada, and several hundred in the USSR. (The Soviet version was known as GST, MP-7 or KM-2, depending on the engines.) The prototype had flown in 1935, so it was not a modern aircraft, and performance was modest. The PBY was jocularly described as the slowest combat aircraft of the war. But it was a sturdy, reliable aircraft, ideally suited for long patrols over the oceans.

Consolidated's model 28, designed by Isaac Laddon, was an all-metal flying boat, and distinguished itself clearly from its precursors by its monoplane configuration. The US Navy had given the prototype the designation P3Y, but then changed it to PBY because of the Calatina's ability to carry a significant bombload. PB meant "patrol bomber", and Y was the manufacturer letter assigned to Consolidated. For the first production model, the PBY-1, Consolidated received an order for 60 aircraft, in 1935. The first aircraft of this series entered service in 1937. They were followed by 40 PBY-2s, 66 PBY-3s, and 33 PBY-4s; the latter model introduced the large dorsal blisters that became so characteristic for the Catalina.

But the first models built in really large numbers were the PBY-5 and the amphibious PBY-5A, ordered by the US Navy and the RAF by the hundreds. The name Catalina was given to the aircraft by the British, but later also adopted by the USN. It was called Canso by the RCAF. Consolidated had to struggle to meet all orders, not only for the PBY but also for the B-24 bomber. Hence more Catalina's were ordered from the Canadian factories of Boeing and Vickers. Aircraft built by Boeing were known as the PB2B, those built by the Naval Aircraft Factory as the PBN, and those built by Vickers in Canada as the PBV. Many PBYs and PBVs served in the USAAF, and there they were called OA-10. In 1941 the Naval Aircraft Factory, a USN-controlled design facility that had a long tradition in the development of flying boats, produced its own version. The PBN-1 Nomad had a new, sturdier wing, larger fuel tanks, a longer hull, and a taller tail surface. These changes were also incorporated in the PBY-6A and PB2B-2.

The PBY was a quite large aircraft. To keep the engines and propellers away from the water spray, the wing was put on top of a sturdy pylon, and braced with two struts on each side. The wingtip floats were retractable. Compared with its biplane predecessors, the Catalina was much better streamlined. The fuselage itself had a two-step flotation bottom, and a rounded upper side. The fuselage was wider than it was high, an unusual feature for a flying boat, and inside there was only one deck. In the nose, there was a position for a gunner / bombardier. Behind him was the cockpit for the two pilots, and immediately aft of the cockpit there was a cabin for the navigator and the radio operator. Behind them was the flight engineer, whose workplace extended into the wing pylon. Aft of the wing there was a cabin with bunks; finally, there were two waist gun positions, in most versions covered with large blisters.

The gunners' most important role was that of lookouts, but armament of a PBY-5A included a single .50 machinegun in both waist positions, one or two .30 guns in the bow turret, and a single gun in a ventral position. Four bomb racks were installed on the wing, all for loads up to 454kg (1000lb).

The two radial engines were installed in the wing leading edge, just aft of the cockpit. The closeness of the propellers to the fuselage made the Catalina a very noisy aircraft. The two Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radials were very reliable engines, but for such a larger aircraft they were relatively low powered. Especially the later versions, much heavier than the first production models, were somewhat underpowered. After the war, a number of PBY were converted to Super Cat configuration, with R-2600 engines.

The Catalina was designed as a pure flying boat, but in 1939 the first PBY-5A flew: An amphibian, with tricycle landing gear. The mainwheels retracted upwards in the fuselage sides, under the wing, and remained clearly visible. Of course this meant an increase in weight, and therefore a reduction in range. The RAF preferred the pure flying boat model, and only eleven of the more 700 Catalinas that it received were amphibious. In all, 1428 amphibious Catalinas were built.

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.

The first RAF Catalinas entered service in the spring of 1941. This was just in time to play a role in the hunt for the Bismarck , that was observed on 26 May by a crew that included an American -- a fact that was kept secret at the time, because of the official neutrality of the USA.

In the Pacific the Catalina was the backbone of long-distance reconnaissance units, at the time of Pearl Harbour and thereafter. Mostly their task was to observe, not to attack, but there were units, such as VP-12 Black Cats that specialized in anti-ship strikes.

The situation in the Atlantic was different, U-boats being the largest threat there. The Catalinas were very suitable for the long U-boat patrols, often flown over the Arctic seas to protect convoys to Murmansk. A weakness of the type was its low speed, which gave an U-boat time to dive before it could be attacked. This changed when U-boats were ordered to stay on the surface and fight it out, but that made the Catalina's task more dangerous. John A. Cruickshank received the Victoria Cross for an action in 1944, in which U-361 was sunk --- and Catalina DA-Y limped home with 72 holes in it and a badly wounded pilot. David Hornell also earned a VC in a Catalina, his was awarded posthumously.

A special tool for anti-submarine warfare was a Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) system in a tail boom. This reported the presence of a submerged submarine, assuming that it was not too deep and the aircraft flew low. These aircraft were fitted with special retarding bomb racks, to make the bombs fall vertical, instead of travelling horizontal with the speed of the aircraft. In January 1944 MAD-equipped Catalinas began to patrol the Straits of Gibraltar.

About 40 to 50 Catalinas are still flying today, although none for military operators: Most of them were converted to firefighting aircraft at one stage in their career. Considering the small number of flying boats in service everywhere, that is a considerable number.

U-boats sunk by this aircraft type (Catalina)

Specifications.

Consolidated PBY Catalina (1936)

The angel of the Atlantic

The PBY Catalina was during WW2 both a spy and vengeful angel of death for U-Boats, and an angel of mercy for their victims. With more than 3,300 produced, perhaps more than 4,000 in all versions, it was the most common flying boat of WW2. Like the Swordfish also one of the most memorable fleet air arm aircraft for its historical significance. A few spotting fleets often decisively, while thousands others just served reliably and without fanfare, far more often saving lives than taking those. The Catalina also had a very long career spanning the cold war and beyond, notably in the civilian market, still in service today, 80 years after its introduction. In ten years from now (2020), some still flying would be 100 years old. Their pilots kept fond memories of these rugged beast of burdens, yet agile and powerful. The Catalina definitely passed into the legends of aviation and easily can be the most underrated US plane of WW2. What are your thoughts ?

Development

The saga of the PBY started, as often, with a requirement. In the 1930s, USN doctrine emphasised the use flying boats in a wide variety of roles today handled by many special-purpose aircraft. Previously, the USN used the Consolidated P2Y and Martin P3M in 1931, but both soon appeared underpowered and lacking both range and payload. Therefore three years afterwards, the U.S. Navy contracted several companies to submit tenders for a long range patrol flying boat capable of covering the Pacific. Missions were diverse, locating and attack enemy transport ships to disrupt supply lines (the Japanese being the most likely), and reconnaissance. The ASW and rescue roles were also integrated but less paramount. Such companies were Consolidated, Martin and Douglas, all known for their heavy duty planes. In October 1933 they were given subsidies to build prototypes in order to make a campaign of comparative tests.

Consolidated and Douglas delivered on time a single prototype each. Called XP3Y-1 and XP3D-1 they had quite numerous differences. The Douglas XP3D-1 was relatively compact, slightly ungainly with engines truncated over the main wing on supports rather than installed into the wing’s curve but this was a cantilever configuration, the wings started from the fuselage. The tail was about the same and engines had relatively similar panel. The cockpit was singulat as having a step-down glass towards the nose. On its side, the Consolidated XP3Y-1 was just an evolution of the XPY-1 which competed unsuccessfully earlier for the P3M contract, combined with the small production XP2Y authorized by the Navy. The Douglas showed good characteristics overall, but the Navy eventually chose Consolidated’s design, notably because of the projected cost per plane of just $90,000.

Design of the PBY

The XP3Y-1 design (internally called company Model 28) indeed differed as having, like the Sikorsky and previous company’s planes, a parasol wing, with external bracing struts. It was mounted on a single pylon over the fuselage. This configuration allowed better sustentation overall, raised the engines above seawater sprays as they were mounted on the wing’s leading edge, and cleared the way for observers. The wings’s wingtip stabilizing floats were in addition retractable in flight, which was the main innovation of the design. This reduced drag massively, as they fit inside cavities at the tip of the wings, forming their streamlined wingtips; This was not a US invention, as it was indeed licensed from Saunders-Roe , a partner of the company in the US. The two-step hull design was about the same as the P2Y, but roomier, and using a cantilever cruciform tail, and not a strut-braced twin tail as on the previous P2Y. This wade for a sturdier construction. Overall, the fuselage was also larger and roomier. After many tests, this had cleaner aerodynamics, giving it better performance, and in all-metal with a stressed-skin of aluminum sheet. That also was found superior to the more mixedbag assembly of the P2Y. The ailerons and wing trailing edges stayed framed in metal but covered with fabric. Another master ace of Consolidated Type 28 its power, procured by two 825 hp (615 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-1830-54 Twin Wasp radial engines. They were trusted engines, well able to allow the plane to take-off and stay aloft for much longer than previous models. less anemic than previous models, they allowed the plane to carry a larger crew and more gasoline, but still authorized some defensive armament, no less than four .30 in (7.6 mm) Browning AN/M2 machine guns installed in the nose turret and in both side observation niches. It also had up to 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs attached under the wings.

From the XPBY-1 to the PBY-1

The XP3Y-1 made its maiden flight for the company on 28 March 1935, and it was transferred U.S. Navy for service trials. The USN appreciated the performance improvement but requested further development to reach their desired new class of patrol bomber. By October 1935, the XP3Y-1 was returned to Consolidated. First, engineers mounted as requested more powerful engines, the 900 hp (670 kW) R-1830-64 models from P&W. It was redesignated XPBY-1 and its vertical tail was redesigned, notably to avoid the latter to be submerged on takeoff. The new XPBY-1 flew the first time on 19 May 1936, establishing afterwards a record non-stop distance flight at the time, of 3,443 mi (2,992 nmi; 5,541 km). It was delivered to the USN for operational testings, joining VP-11F in October 1936. VP-12 was the second squadron to receive the first pre-production run models, in early 1937. The USN read the reports which were good, and in between had already ordered a second production run on 25 July 1936.

About the name:

The official navy ordnance designation “PBY” was a product of the 1922 USN aircraft designation system. “PB” translated as “Patrol Bomber”, Y was the Consolidated Aircraft Manufacturer code. Canadian Vickers planed were designated “PBV”, Boeing Canada “PB2B” and Naval Aircraft Factory “PBN”. The British Commonwealth also had their own designation, giving their own flying boats after coastal port towns. The RAF maintained “Catalina”, but the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) called it the “Canso” from the namesake town in Nova Scotia. The U.S. Navy was last to adopt the name of “Catalina” in 1942 but the USAF called it OA-10. The name came from the Santa Catalina Island, California, coined in November 1941, when Great Britain ordered 30 aircraft. Consolidated, base din San Diego, was not far away from the island indeed.

The PBY was a “flying boat”, meaning it was meant to take off and land at sea, first and foremost; It was not a converted plane equipped with float (seaplane/float plane). Its hull was shaped as as a boat hull, complete with a bow, fuselage wave deflectors, electric windshield brooms and heater for removing water from the cockpit glass when taking off in splashes, and a boat-like tail end under the fuselage. Like many flying boats of the era, the PBY had a wing mounted high up, connected to the fuselage by a large central pylon and supported by two large struts on either side. There was no bracing. The tail was rounded, and made higher after a design revision, and modified also in later variants. It had a cantilever cruciform arrangement, as the aileron were placed relatively high, to compensate for the position of the main wings. The wings’s ends contained the foldable floats, electrically deployed.

The PBY’s most defining feature were its two side gun blisters. They had both purposes: Providing an excellent observation point first, and provide additional defense point on either side as well. Made in plexiglas, it could become very hot when the planes were idle, anchored at sea level. Fortunately, the large aft window part of the blister was absent to allow side firing and the gunner to access and exit the place, using a ladder affixed in a dedicated location. There was a railing to mount two cal.50 Machine guns, port and starboard, but the M1919A4 was also often used. There was also a radio compartment located in the central pillar under the main wings. The PBY was designed as amphibious, fitted with two large wheels located at the bottom flanks under the wings, deployed by using a hydraulic main gear. There was also a tail wheel, located under traps underbelly just before the tail. In its final configuration, the PBY had a crew of 9-10: Typically, a pilot and a co-pilot, a bow turret gunner, a flight engineer, a radio operator, a navigator, a radar operator, two waist gunners and a ventral gunner. One of the waist gunners was often formed as a mechanic as well to assist the flight engineer. The PBY was the first USN place with a permanent flight engineer/mechanic on board wit his working station.

Power & performances

The final main production version was given two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, which delivered 1,200 hp (890 kW) each, 2,400 total. This was for a total weight of 20 to 35,420 lb (16,066 kg). The 10 tonnes Hellcat fighter had the same power in 1944. These engines had 3-bladed constant-speed propellers. Due to the very large production there were more powerful engines (see variants). The Power to mass ratio was 0.067 hp/lb (0.110 kW/kg), and their large (1,400 sq ft, 130 m2, for a drag erea of 43.26 ft2 (4.02 m2)) wing area provided a reduced wing loading of 25.3 lb/sq ft (124 kg/m2).

The main focus was range, not speed. These Catalina were slow burners, capable of a top speed fo 196 mph (315 km/h, 170 kn), a cruise speed of 125 mph (201 km/h, 109 kn) over a range of 2,520 mi (4,060 km, 2,190 nmi). They could climb up to 15,800 ft (4,800 m), at a rate of 1,000 ft/min (5.1 m/s).

This too, was also not their main concern, although the design contract precised these planes were to be used as along range Pacific bombers as well. Defensive armament was certainly not to the scale of the B17 Flying fortress, but good enough to put a fight, and the planes were stable and sturdy as well, surviving with man bullet holes. They generally carried three .30 cal (7.62 mm) Browning M1919A4 machine guns, a fual mount in the nose turret and one in the ventral hatch close to the tail, only there to cover the “dead angle”. The sides were covered by two .50 cal (12.7 mm) M2hB machine guns, in each waist blister, on pintles. The payload was carried under wing, and the total could represent 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) of bombs or depth charges (four 454 kgs -1000 ibs General-Purpose Bomb for example) torpedo racks were also available, although these were the standard 457 mm aerial model, and were rarely seen on photos.

The PBY in action

Although it was not a specialty as planned initially, the Catalina gained during the battle of the Atlantic a fantastic reputation as sub-killer. The “angel of death” constantly patrolling above the long convoys, searching for the ominous dark grey shape visible by clear weather at 10-15 meter deep underwater. The shape of an U-Boat. This is one of the reasons Wolfpacks preferred to attack by night on surface. There was no air cover, and the low visibility allowed them to penetrate the convoy “box” on surface at max speed. Both the Catalina and Sunderland became very instrumental in ASW patrols, but could attack as well. Sometimes they carried a combination of bombs and depth charges, but it was rare to catch an U-Boat on surface. They could be heard coming and were quick to dive before the Catalina was on them. However the depht charges did not needed to dive for long, and the Catalina had the advantage of seeing the submarines after their dive.

Catalinas was used in this role both in the Atlantic, north and south, and Pacific but also the Indian Ocean, from the Seychelles or Ceylon, both important ASW flying plane bases. They were also used over convoys bound to Murmansk, braving the extreme cold and bad weather. By 1943, U-boats realized their threat and were packed with anti-aircraft guns. Two Victoria Crosses were won by Catalina pilots badly damaging on sinking U-Boats while under heavy fire like John Cruickshank (RAF) for U-347 and David Hornell RCAF on U-1225. In all, Catalinas destroyed 40 U-boats but took losses as well. A special class of U-Boat, used for FLAK was added organically to wolfpacks. The Brazilian also participated in the battle of the Atlantic and used Catalinas, one sinking U-199 in Brazilian waters on 31 July 1943.

Maritime patrol

PBY-5A_VPB-6-CG_over_Narssarsuak_Greenland_1945

The Catalinas were also good at long range reconnaissance. Key to their success in their their role was their parasol wing and large waist blisters which both provided excellent visibility. Long range and reliable engine also ensured they were long and often in the air, what it mattered. The RAF made great use of them over the Atlantic as the production of flying boat never was sufficient to cover the needs of the RNAS. RAF Coastal Command flying boat, piloted by Ensign Leonard B. Smith (U.S. Navy) that flew from Castle Archdale Flying boat base in Northern Ireland, located the German battleship Bismarck , which proved instrumental to finish off the mighty battleship before she reached the safety of French waters. In all, the British “cats” sunk at least 48 confirmed U-Boats during the battle of the Atlantic.

Also on 7 December 1941, the Japanese landings on Kota Bharu in Malaya were spotted by a Catalina from No. 205 Squadron RAF. It was shot down before radio reporting the fleet by five Nakajima Ki-27 fighters and Flying Officer Patrick Bedell and his crew became the first Allied casualties in the war with Japan. Catalinas were also at the origin of the success at Midway, spotting the Japanese fleet approaching the Island at the start of the Battle. The vital intel provided by the “Cats” one day before the battle was one crucial element counting for the win on the US side. Later, one of these PBYs scored …the only successful torpedo hit of the battle, with the oiler IJN Akebono Maru.

A “Canso” from the RCAF (Squadron Leader L.J. Birchall) also detected a Japanese carrier fleet approaching Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean fleet on 4 April 1942, allowing the allies to organize their defence. In rare occasions, one such flight was enough to foil plans as destroying surprise.

This was on 10 December 1941, when IJN Ashigara ( Nachi class ) was in a holding position in the South China Sea, circa 200 miles (320 km) NW of Manila Bay. There too, were IJN Maya, Kuma, and the destroyers Ikazuchi and Inazuma, under command of Admiral Takahashi, which also headed the Philippine Invasion Force. She was spotted by U. S. Navy air patrols which came from Luzon and soon, the a single PBY-4 Catalina from VP 102, Patrol Wing TEN, located the fleet and repoted their position. Soon, Five of the wing took off from from NAS Sangley Point (Manila Bay) under command of Lieutenant Commander J. V. Peterson. They attacked at noon, dropping together twenty 500 lb demolition bombs in a tight pattern, from 13,500 feet. Splashes were clustered astern of IJN Ashigara, and two hits reported; Since AA fire was heavy, no confirmation could be given and all withdrew while a PBY sustained minor damage. The two heavy cruisers were identified as battleships back then andthe unit reported Kong has been hit. There were two follow-up strikes but they could not locate them;

Night maritime patrol

The famous “Black Cats” of the pacific were named that way for a reason: They were painted black to ensure night patrols (at first improvized paint with soap and oil burning lamp residues) and mechanics improvized flame suppressor devices on the exhausts. At Midway already, four PBYs of Patrol Squadrons 24 and 51 performed a night torpedo attack on the nearby fleet on the night of June 3–4, 1942. One scored a hit, badly damaging the fleet oiler Akebono Maru. This was the only successful USN aerial torpedo attack of the entire battle of Midway .

Due to the defensive nature of the war, “Cats” pilots often learned how to stay in the ckpuds as much as possible during their transit to a search area or transport mission, and by night all lights shut. They were resilient in case of attack, but stood little chance due to their large size, poor agility and slow speed. Hiding was also a matter of organization: To avoid grouping these planes in large, fixed flying boat bases, the PBYs used to be supplied as much as possible with dedicated seaplane tenders, depot and supply ships, many being former converted “four-pipers”.

The Black Cats of Guadalcanal

The one and a half year long Guadalcanal campaign saw USN PBYs painted matte black for the first time, specialized for night bombing and carrying torpedoes, even be used as “gunships” in strafing missions, against Japanese supply fleets, notably the infamous “Tokyo Express”, always operating by night. They multiplied interdiction raids and accumulated success, proving an hinderance to the Japanese in this area. In December 1942 VP-12, was the first “black cats” squadron, followed by thirteen more. They were flying slowly almost to ship’s mast height, in order to avoid radar and visual detection. They sank and damaged 6,000 to 8,000 tonnes per plane, per month on average (as cited in a documentary of the time, alltogether 41,000 tonnes, also damaging 43,000 tonnes) as well as devastating land-based Japanese installations, in addition to their usual recce and SAR duties. When attacking, it was always with bombs, rarely with torpedoes. One veteran pilot affirmed his squadron alone sunk an damaged a cumulated 200,000 tonnes of Japanese shipping, and fourteen squadrons of “Black Cats” operated in the same area. The “Black Cats” received the PB4Y-2 from early 1944 and were disbanded by mid-1945.

RAAF’s Catalinas

The Royal Australian Air Force also used their Catalinas was night raiders, with the Squadron 11, 20, 42, and 43. They started with minelaying missions laying by 23 April 1943 until the end of the war and concentrated their area of operations at first in the southwest Pacific, but they operated deep in enemy controlled areas. They excelled at mining ports and shipping routes. IJN convoys were condemned to take on the open sea, now easy meat for USN submarines. Their action was sensitive in particular at Balikpapan, home of about 80% of the oil supplies consumed by the IJN. From late late 1944, these missions, with prepositioned supply vessels, could last 20 hours, and like the Black Cats they flew very low, around 200 ft (61 m), which was excessively dangerous in some hilly volcanous archipelagos. Their minefields also trapped IJN vessels inside Manila Bay, ensuring no supplies would come from there during General Douglas MacArthur’s landing at Mindoro. They also mined Jinamoc in the Leyte Gulf, and along the Chinese coast, from Hong Kong to Wenchow. They also were proficient in night bombing raids, and RAAF “black cats” crews were proud of their motto “The First and the Furthest”. They repeatedly bombed Rabaul, using “terror bombs” replacing traditional bomb loads with scrap metal, rocks, beer bottles with razor blades, not only producing screaming noises but also deadly shrapnells, keeping the Japanese awake. Thanks to their long range, one of the major base was Drimmie Head, Gove Peninsula in the Australian Northern Territory.

Catalina preserved in a USAF museum used for SAR

The angels of Mercy

As true the Black Cats were hatred by the Japanese, they were beloved by every sailors which ship was sunk n the middle of the Atlantic or aviator stranded on a forgotten island in the pacific. The U.S. military used the Catalina first as their main rescue aircraft. Some achieved good results, like LCDR Adrian Marks (USN) PBY which score was of 56 sailors, all from the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis in 1945, saved from sharks. As room was lacking inside, they climbed on the wing, and the PBY housed and protected them from shark attack until rescue ships arrived. This SAR role went on for many years after the end of WW2 and the Catalina proved very popular in civilian service, commercial air travel, exploration, fire fighting, inter-island supply, and some are still flying today, preserved and maintained with a well-deserved love. Afte the war they were considered surplus and sold to many navies around the world, seeing service until the 1970s and sometimes well beyond, proving their extraordinary resilient design. In some way they were the flying boat equivalent of the DC-3 Dakota…

Variants, exports, and post-war use

Production and variants:.

Back-and forth remarks between Consolidated led to many design developments and no less than 16 variants, including the very different PB-1 Nomad from the Naval Aircraft Factory, which became a new model of its own. -XPBY-1: Prototype version (Model 28) made for the contact comparative tests of the USN -XP3Y-1: Same but with two 900 hp R-1830-64 engines as requested for pre-production. -PBY-1: (Factory Model 28-1): Initial production, two 900 hp R-1830-64 engines (60 built) -PBY-2: (Factory Model 28-2), small chages in equipments and improved engines (50 built) -PBY-3: (Factory Model 28-3), re-engined with two 1,000 hp R-1830-66 engines (66 built) -PBY-4: (Factory Model 28-4), re-engined with two 1,050 hp R-1830-72 engines (33 built, including the XPBY-4/XPBY-5A). -PBY-5: (Factory Model 28-5): 1,200 hp R-1830-82/92 engines, extra self-sealing fuel tanks (683 built) Also used by the FAA/RAD as Catalina IVA, US Coast Guard and Soviet GST. -XPBY-5A: PBY-4 pure amphibian, first flew in November 1939. -PBY-5A (Factory Model 28-5A): Pure Amphibious version, two 1,200 hp R-1830-92 engines. 124 with 0.3in bow gun, the others with two (803 total). -PBY-5R: Staff transport, with amphibious gear, no nose turret, additional windows. -PBY-6A: Pure Amphibious, two 1,200 hp R-1830-92 engines, taller fin and rudder, radar scanner above cockpit, 2x 0.5 in nose guns (175 built, 21 for USSR) -PBY-6AG: Single Staff transport for the US Coast Guard. -PB2B-1: Manufactured by Boeing Canada 1942 for the RAF and RCAF (240 built) -PB2B-2: Boeing Canada built version of the PBY-5 but with the taller fin of the PBN-1. 67 built. Most supplied to the RAF as the Catalina VI. -PBN-1 Nomad: Naval Aircraft Factory versions with a 2ft bow extension, new hull lines, modified step, new wingtip floats, tail surfaces, revised electrical system. All lend lease: 155 RAF Catalina V + 138 Soviet Navy (KM-1). -PBV-1A/Canso A Canadian Vickers PBY-5A version 1943-44 (380 RCAF, 150 for RCAF, rest for USAF OA-10A) -OA-10/10A/10B: USAF designation respectively for the PBY-5A (105), PBV-1A (230) and PBY-6A (75).

The British Commonwealth Catalina Mark I to Mark VI

After the US, Great Britain was the largest user of the PBY, locally named “Catalina”, but not produced at home. Some were Canadian-built by the majority was US-Built. Total 771, some with RCAF and RAAF. Catalina Mark I: PBY-5 (six 0.303 in guns, bow, waist blisters, hull step aft) 1,200 hp R-1830-S1C3-G engines (109) Catalina Mark IA: RCAF “Canso” (14) Catalina Mark IB: PBY-5Bs (225) Catalina Mark II: Some Equipment changes (6) Catalina IIA: Made by Vickers-Canada (5) Catalina IIIA: Former PBY-5As (12) Catalina IVA: PBY-5s (93) Catalina IVB: PB2B-1s, a few with the RAAF (240) Catalina VI: PB2B-2s RAF and RAAF (67)

The Catalina was used by the following *(PW) is postwar: Argentina (PW), Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile (PW), China, Colombia (PW), Cuba (PW), Denmark, Dominican Republic (PW), Ecuador (PW), France, Iceland (PW), Israel (PW), Japan (PW), Mexico (PW), Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua (PW), Norway, Paraguay (PW), Peru (PW), Philippines (PW), South Africa, Spain (PW), Sweden (PW), Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay (PW). Civilian operators: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Republic of China, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Philippines, Venezuela, United Kingdom, United States, etc. Very popular in their SAR role, USN Catalinas were active until 1957, the Coast Guards used them a bit longer, and the Brazilian Naval Ar force retained theirs until 1982.

Read More/Src http://www.pbyrescue.com/ https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/history-up-close/aircraft-in-spotlight/pby-cutaway/ https://catalinaaircrafttrust.com/ AN 01-5M-3 Handbook of Structural Repair for Navy Models PBY-5, PBY-5A, PBY-6A Army Model OA-10 Airplanes, 1945 (PDF) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_seaplanes_and_amphibious_aircraft en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_PBY_Catalina Also: Google books on the PBY

Books: Bridgeman, Leonard. “The Consolidated Vultee Model 28 Catalina.” Jane’s Fighting Aircraft of World War II. London: Studio, 1946. Cacutt, Len, ed. “PBY Catalina: Ocean Patroller.” Great Aircraft of the World. London: Marshall Cavendish, 1989. Creed, Roscoe. PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat. Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1986. Crocker, Mel. Black Cats and Dumbos: WW II’s Fighting PBYs. Huntington Beach, California: Crocker Media Expressions, 2002. Dorny, Louis B. US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Pacific War. Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2007. Freeman, Elmer (1984). Those Navy Guys and Their PBY’s: The Aleutian Solution. Spokane, Wash.: Kedging Publishing Co. Gaunt, Coral and Robert Cleworth. Cats at War: Story of RAAF Catalinas in the Asia Pacific Theatre of War. Roseville, NSW Australia: J.R. Cleworth, 2000. Greenhous, Brereton et al. The Crucible of War 1939–1945: The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Vol. III. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994. Gunston, Bill (1986). American Warplanes. New York: Crown Publishers Inc. Hendrie, Andrew. Flying Cats: The Catalina Aircraft in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 1988. Kinzey, Bert. PBY Catalina in Detail & Scale. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 2000. Knott, Richard C. Black Cat Raiders of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 2000. Legg, David. Consolidated PBY Catalina: The Peacetime Record. Annapolis, Maryland: US Naval Institute Press, 2002. Miller, Nathan (1997). War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II. New York: Oxford University Press. Petrescu, FLorian Ion and Reilly Victoria Petrescu. The Aviation History. Stoughton, Wisconsin: Books on Demand, 2012. Ragnarsson, Ragnar. US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Atlantic War. Botley, Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2006. Scarborough, William E. PBY Catalina in Action (Aircraft number 62). Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1983. Scarborough, William E. PBY Catalina: Walk Around. Carrollton, Texas: Squadron/Signal Publications, Inc., 1996. Wagner, Ray. The Story of the PBY Catalina (Aero Biographies Volume 1). San Diego, California: Flight Classics, 1972.

Author: dreadnaughtz

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Crimean War 1855
Boshin war 1860s
US Civil War 1861-65
The 1898 war
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Operation Flintlock
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⚔ Crimean War

Radetzky class
Erzherzog Friedrich class
Novara class

Navarin class (1854)
Duquesne class (1853)
Fleurus class (1853)
Montebello (1852)
Austerlitz (1852)
Jean Bart (1852)
Charlemagne (1851)
Napoleon (1850)
Valmy (1847)
Ocean class (1805)
Hercules class (1836)
Iéna class (1814)
Jupiter (1831)
Duperré (1840)
Pomone (1845)
Isly (1849)
Bellone (1853)
D’Assas class (1854)
Primauguet class (1852)
Roland (1850)

Duke of Wellington
Conqueror (1855)
Marlborough (1855)
Royal Albert (1854)
St Jean D’Acre (1853)
Waterloo (1833
Sailing ships of the Line
Sailing Frigates
Sailing Corvettes
Screw two deckers
Screw frigates
Screw Corvettes
Screw guard ships
Paddle frigates
Paddle corvettes
Screw sloops
Paddle sloops
Screw gunboats

⚑ 1870 Fleets

Numancia (1863)
Tetuan (1863)
Vitoria (1865)
Arapiles (1864)
Zaragosa (1867)
Sagunto (1869)
Mendez Nunez (1869)
Spanish wooden s. frigates (1861-65)
Frigate Tornado (1865)
Frigate Maria de Molina (1868)
Spanish sail gunboats (1861-65)
Ironclad Kaiser (1850-70)
Drache class BD. Ironclads (1861)
Kaiser Max class BD. Ironclads (1862)
Erzherzog F. Max class BD. Ironclads (1865)
SMS Lissa Ct. Bat. Ships (1869)
SMS Novara Frigate (1850)
SMS Schwarzenberg Frigate (1853)
Radetzky class frigates (1854)
Erzherzog Friedrich class corvettes (1853)
SMS Helgoland Sloop (1867)

Dannebrog (1863)
Peder Skram (1864)
Danmark (1864)
Rolf Krake (1864)
Lindormen (1868)
Jylland CR (1860)
Tordenskjold CR (1862)
Dagmar SP (1861)
Absalon class GB (1862)
Fylla class GB (1863)

Basileos Giorgios (1867)
Basilisa Olga (1869)
Sloop Hellas (1861)
Dutch Screw Frigates & corvettes
De Ruyter Bd Ironclad (1863)
Prins H. der Neth. Turret ship (1866)
Buffel class turret rams (1868)
Skorpioen class turret rams (1868)
Heiligerlee class Monitors (1868)
Bloedhond class Monitors (1869)
Adder class Monitors (1870)
A.H.Van Nassau Frigate (1861)
A.Paulowna Frigate (1867)
Djambi class corvettes (1860)
Amstel class Gunboats (1860)

Screw 3-deckers (1850-58)
Screw 2-deckers (1852-59)
Screw Frigates (1849-59)
Conv. sailing frigates
Screw Corvettes (1846-59)
Screw Fl. Batteries (1855)
Paddle Frigates
Paddle Corvettes
screw sloops
screw gunboats
Sailing ships of the line
Sailing frigates
Sailing corvettes
Sailing bricks
Gloire class Bd. Ironclads (1859)
Couronne Bd. Ironclad (1861)
Magenta class Bd. Ironclads (1861)
Palestro class Flt. Batteries (1862)
Arrogante class Flt. Batteries (1864)
Embuscade class Flt. Batteries (1865)
Taureau arm. ram (1865)
Belliqueuse Bd. Ironclad (1865)
Alma Cent. Bat. Ironclads (1867)
Ocean class CT Battery ship (1868)
Cosmao class cruisers (1861)
Talisman cruisers (1862)
Resolue cruisers (1863)
Venus class cruisers (1864)
Decres cruiser (1866)
Desaix cruiser (1866)
Limier class cruisers (1867)
Linois cruiser (1867)
Chateaurenault cruiser (1868)
Infernet class Cruisers (1869)
Bourayne class Cruisers (1869)
Cruiser Hirondelle (1869)
Curieux class sloops (1860)
Adonis class sloops (1863)
Guichen class sloops (1865)
Sloop Renard (1866)
Bruix class sloops (1867)
Pique class gunboats (1862)
Hache class gunboats (1862)
Arbalete class gunboats (1866)
Etendard class gunboats (1868)
Revolver class gunboats (1869)

Barrozo class (1864)
Brasil (1864)
Tamandare (1865)
Lima Barros (1865)
Rio de Janeiro (1865)
Silvado (1866)
Mariz E Barros class (1866)
Carbal class (1866)
Osmanieh class Bd.Ironclads (1864)
Assari Tewfik (1868)
Assari Shevket class Ct. Ironclads (1868)
Lufti Djelil class CDS (1868)
Avni Illah class cas.ironclads (1869)
Fethi Bulend class cas.ironclads (1870)
Barbette ironclad Idjalleh (1870)
Messudieh class Ct.Bat.ships (1874)
Hamidieh Ct.Bat.Ironclads (1885)
Abdul Kadir Battleships (project)
Frigate Ertrogul (1863)
Selimieh (1865)
Rehberi Tewkik (1875)
Mehmet Selim (1876)
Sloops & despatch vessels
Monitor Atahualpa (1865)
CT. Bat Independencia (1865)
Turret ship Huascar (1865)
Frigate Apurimac (1855)
Corvette America (1865)
Corvette Union (1865)

Bartolomeu Dias class (28-guns) steam frigates
Sagris (14 guns) steam corvette
Vasco Da Gama (74 guns) Ship of the Line
Dom Fernando I e Gloria (50) Sailing Frigate
Dom Joao I class (14 guns) Sailing corvettes
Portuguese Side-wheel steamers

Formidabile class (1861)
Pr. de Carignano class (1863)
Re d'Italia class (1864)
Regina maria Pia class (1863)
Roma class (1865)
Affondatore (1865)
Palestro class (1865)
Guerriera class (1866)
Cappelini class (1868)
Sesia DV (1862)
Esploratore class DV (1863)
Vedetta DV (1866)

Ironclad Ruyjo (1868)
Ironclad Kotetsu (1868)
Frigate Fujiyama (1864)
Frigate Kasuga (1863)
Corvette Asama (1869)
Gunboat Raiden (1856)
Gunboat Chiyodogata (1863)
Teibo class GB (1866)
Gunboat Mushun (1865)
Gunboat Hosho (1868)

Prinz Adalbert (1864)
Arminius (1864)
Friedrich Carl (1867)
Kronprinz (1867)
K.Whilhelm (1868)
Arcona class Frigates (1858)
Nymphe class Frigates (1863)
Augusta class Frigates (1864)
Jäger class gunboats (1860)
Chamaleon class gunboats (1860)

Ironclad Sevastopol (1864)
Ironclad Petropavlovsk (1864)
Ironclad Smerch (1864)
Pervenetz class (1863)
Charodeika class (1867)
Admiral Lazarev class (1867)
Ironclad Kniaz Pojarski (1867)
Bronenosetz class monitors (1867)
Admiral Chichagov class (1868)
S3D Imperator Nicolai I (1860)
S3D Sinop (1860)
S3D Tsessarevich (1860)
Russian screw two-deckers (1856-59)
Russian screw frigates (1854-61)
Russian screw corvettes (1856-60)
Russian screw sloops (1856-60)
Varyag class Corvettes (1862)
Almaz class Sloops (1861)
Opyt TGBT (1861)
Sobol class TGBT (1863)
Pishtchal class TGBT (1866)

Ericsson class monitors (1865)
Frigate Karl XIV (1854)
Frigate Stockholm (1856)
Corvette Gefle (1848)
Corvette Orädd (1853)

Skorpionen class (1866)
Frigate Stolaf (1856)
Frigate Kong Sverre (1860)
Frigate Nordstjerna (1862)
Frigate Vanadis (1862)
Glommen class gunboats (1863)

Union Sailing ships
USS New Ironsides (1862)
USS monitor (1862)
USS Galena (1862)
Passaic class
USS Roanoke
USS Onondaga
Miantonomoh class
USS Dictator
USS Puritan
Canonicus class
Kalamazoo class
Milwaukee class
Casco class
USS Keokuk (1862)
Wampanoag class (1864)
USS Chattanooga (1864)
USS Idaho (1864)
Ossipee class (1862)
USS Sacramento (1862)
Ticonderoga class (1862)
Unadilla class gunboats (1861)
Kansas class (1862)
Octorara class (1862)
Sassacus class (1862)
Mohongo class (1863)
USS Spuyten Duyvil (1864)
USS Alligator (1862)

CSS Frederickburg (1862)
CSS Savannah (1863)
CSS Stonewall (1864)
CSS Virginia II
CSS Tennessee
CSS Nashville
Commerce Raiders
Ajax class Iron Gunboats
CSS David (1862)
CSS HL Hunley (1863)
Dunderberg Bd Ironclad (1865)
Wampanoag class frigates (1864)
Frigate Chattanooga & Idaho (1864)
Frigate Idaho (1864)
Java class frigates (1865)
Contookook class frigates (1865)
Frigate Trenton (1876)
Swatara class sloops (1865)
Alaska class sloops (1868)
Galena class sloops (1873)
Enterprise class sloops (1874)
Alert class sloops (1873)
Alarm torpedo ram (1873)
Intrepid torpedo ram (1874)

⚑ 1890 Fleets

Parana class (1873)
La Plata class (1875)
Pilcomayo class (1875)
Ferre class (1880)
Custoza (1872)
Erzherzog Albrecht (1872)
Kaiser (1871)
Kaiser Max class (1875)
Tegetthoff (1878)
Radetzky(ii) class (1872)
SMS Donau(ii) (1874)
SMS Donau(iii) (1893)
Erzherzog Friedrich class (1878)
Saida (1878)
Fasana (1870)
Aurora class (1873)
Hai An class frigates (1872)

Tordenskjold (1880)
Iver Hvitfeldt (1886)
Skjold (1896)
Cruiser Fyen (1882)
Cruiser Valkyrien (1888)

Spetsai class (1889)
Nauarchos Miaoulis (1889)
Greek Torpedo Boats (1881-85)
Greek Gunboats (1861-84)
Gunboat St Michael (1970)
Gunboat "1804" (1875)
Gunboat Dessalines (1883)
Gunboat Toussaint Louverture (1886)
Konigin der Netherland (1874)
Draak, monitor (1877)
Matador, monitor (1878)
R. Claeszen, monitor (1891)
Evertsen class CDS (1894)
Atjeh class cruisers (1876)
Cruiser Sumatra (1890)
Cruiser K.W. Der. Neth (1892)
Banda class Gunboats (1872)
Pontania class Gunboats (1873)
Gunboat Aruba (1873)
Hydra Gunboat class (1873)
Batavia class Gunboats (1877)
Wodan Gunboat class (1877)
Ceram class Gunboats (1887)
Combok class Gunboats (1891)
Borneo Gunboat (1892)
Nias class Gunboats (1895)
Koetei class Gunboats (1898)
Dutch sloops (1864-85)

Friedland CT Battery ship (1873)
Richelieu CT Battery ship (1873)
Colbert class CT Battery ships (1875)
Redoutable CT Battery ship (1876)
Courbet class CT Battery ships (1879)
Amiral Duperre barbette ship (1879)
Terrible class barbette ships (1883)
Amiral Baudin class barbette ships (1883)
Barbette ship Hoche (1886)
Marceau class barbette ships (1888)
Cerbere class Arm.Ram (1870)
Tonnerre class Br.Monitors (1875)
Tempete class Br.Monitors (1876)
Tonnant ironclad (1880)
Furieux ironclad (1883)
Fusee class Arm.Gunboats (1885)
Acheron class Arm.Gunboats (1885)
Jemmapes class (1892)
Bouvines class (1892)
La Galissonière Cent. Bat. Ironclads (1872)
Bayard class barbette ships (1879)
Vauban class barbette ships (1882)
Prot. Cruiser Sfax (1884)
Prot. Cruiser Tage (1886)
Prot. Cruiser Amiral Cécille (1888)
Prot. Cruiser Davout (1889)
Forbin class Cruisers (1888)
Troude class Cruisers (1888)
Alger class Cruisers (1891)
Friant class Cruisers (1893)
Prot. Cruiser Suchet (1893)
Descartes class Cruisers (1893)
Linois class Cruisers (1896)
D'Assas class Cruisers (1896)
Catinat class Cruisers (1896)
R. de Genouilly class Cruisers (1876)
Cruiser Duquesne (1876)
Cruiser Tourville (1876)
Cruiser Duguay-Trouin (1877)
Laperouse class Cruisers (1877)
Villars class Cruisers (1879)
Cruiser Iphigenie (1881)
Cruiser Naiade (1881)
Cruiser Arethuse (1882)
Cruiser Dubourdieu (1884)
Cruiser Milan (1884)
Parseval class sloops (1876)
Bisson class sloops (1874)
Epee class gunboats (1873)
Crocodile class gunboats (1874)
Tromblon class gunboats (1875)
Condor class Torpedo Cruisers (1885)
G. Charmes class gunboats (1886)
Inconstant class sloops (1887)
Bombe class Torpedo Cruisers (1887)
Wattignies class Torpedo Cruisers (1891)
Levrier class Torpedo Cruisers (1891)

Siete de Setembro class (1874)
Riachuleo class (1883)

☍ See the Page
Coastal Battleship Vasco da Gama (1875)
Portuguese Torpedo Boats
Portuguese Gunboats

GB Indipendencia (1874)
GB Democrata (1875)
Cruiser Heibtnuma (1890)
Cruiser Lufti Humayun (1892)
Cruiser Hadevendighar (1892)
Shadieh class cruisers (1893)
Turkish TBs (1885-94)

Pr. Amadeo class (1871)
Caio Duilio class (1879)
Italia class (1885)
Ruggero di Lauria class (1884)
Carracciolo (1869)
Vettor Pisani (1869)
Cristoforo Colombo (1875)
Flavio Goia (1881)
Amerigo Vespucci (1882)
C. Colombo (ii) (1892)
Pietro Micca (1876)
Tripoli (1886)
Goito class (1887)
Folgore class (1887)
Partenope class (1889)
Giovanni Bausan (1883)
Etna class (1885)
Dogali (1885)
Piemonte (1888)
Staffeta (1876)
Rapido (1876)
Barbarigo class (1879)
Messagero (1885)
Archimede class (1887)
Guardiano class GB (1874)
Scilla class GB (1874)
Provana class GB (1884)
Curtatone class GB (1887)
Castore class GB (1888)

Ironclad Fuso (1877)
Kongo class Ironclads (1877)
Cruiser Tsukushi (1880)
Cruiser Takao (1888)
Cruiser Yaeyama (1889)
Cruiser Chishima (1890)
Cruiser Tatsuta (1894)
Cruiser Miyako (1898)
Frigate Nisshin (1869)
Frigate Tsukuba (acq.1870)
Kaimon class CVT (1882)
Katsuragi class SCVT (1885)
Sloop Seiki (1875)
Sloop Amagi (1877)
Corvette Jingei (1876)
Gunboat Banjo (1878)
Maya class GB (1886)
Gunboat Oshima (1891)

Ironclad Hansa (1872)
G.Kurfürst class (1873)
Kaiser class (1874)
Sachsen class (1877)
Ironclad Oldenburg (1884)
Ariadne class CVT (1871)
Leipzig class CVT (1875)
Bismarck class CVT (1877)
Carola class CVT (1880)
Corvette Nixe (1885)
Corvette Charlotte (1885)
Schwalbe class Cruisers (1887)
Bussard class (1890)
Aviso Zieten (1876)
Blitz class Avisos (1882)
Aviso Greif (1886)
Wacht class Avisos (1887)
Meteor class Avisos (1890)
Albatross class GBT (1871)
Cyclop GBT (1874)
Otter GBT (1877)
Wolf class GBT (1878)
Habitch class GBT (1879)
Hay GBT (1881)
Eber GBT (1881)
Rhein class Monitors (1872)
Wespe class Monitors (1876)
Brummer class Arm.Steamers (1884)

Petr Velikiy (1872)
Ekaterina class ICL (1886)
Imperator Alexander class ICL (1887)
Ironclad Gangut (1890)
Admiral Ushakov class (1893)
Navarin (1893)
Petropavlovsk class (1894)
Sissoi Veliky (1896)
Minin (1866)
G.Admiral class (1875)
Pamiat Merkuria (1879)
V.Monomakh (1882)
D.Donskoi (1883)
Adm.Nakhimov (1883)
Vitiaz class (1884)
Pamiat Azova (1886)
Adm.Kornilov (1887)
Rurik (1895)
Svetlana (1896)
Gunboat Ersh (1874)
Kreiser class sloops (1875)
Gunboat Nerpa (1877)
Burun class Gunboats (1879)
Sivuch class Gunboats (1884)
Korietz class Gunboats (1886)
Kubanetz class Gunboats (1887)
TGBT Lt.Ilin (1886)
TGBT Kp.Saken (1889)
Kazarski class TGBT (1889)
Grozyaschi class AGBT (1890)
Gunboat Khrabri (1895)
T.Gunboat Abrek (1896)
Amur class minelayers (1898)
Lima class Cruisers (1880)
Chilean TBs (1879)

Monitor Loke (1871)
Svea class Coast Defence Ships (1886)
Berserk class (1873)
Sloop Balder (1870)
Blenda class GB (1874)
Urd class GB (1877)
Gunboat Edda (1885)

Gorm (1870)
Odin (1872)
Helgoland (1878)

Hotspur (1870)
Glatton (1871)
Devastation class (1871)
Cyclops class (1871)
Rupert (1874)
Neptune class (1874)
Dreadnought (1875)
Inflexible (1876)
Agamemnon class (1879)
Conqueror class (1881)
Colossus class (1882)
Admiral class (1882)
Trafalgar class (1887)
Victoria class (1890)
Royal Sovereign class (1891)
Centurion class (1892)
Renown (1895)
HMS Shannon (1875)
Nelson class (1876)
Iris class (1877)
Leander class (1882)
Imperieuse class (1883)
Mersey class (1885)
Surprise class (1885)
Scout class (1885)
Archer class (1885)
Orlando class (1886)
Medea class (1888)
Barracouta class (1889)
Barham class (1889)
Pearl class (1889)
1870-90 Torpedo Boats

Ironclad Pelayo (1887)
Aragon class (1879)
Velasco class (1881)
Isla de Luzon (1886)
Alfonso XII class (1887)
Reina Regentes class (1887)
Infanta Maria Teresa class (1890)
Emperador Carlos V (1895)
Cristobal Colon (1896)
Princesa de Asturias class (1896)
Destructor class (1886)
Temerario class (1891)
TGunboat Filipinas (1892)
De Molina class (1896)
Furor class (1896)
Audaz class (1897)
Spanish TBs (1878-87)
Fernando class gunboats (1875)
Concha class gunboats (1883)

USS Maine (1889)
USS Texas (1892)
Indiana class (1893)
USS Iowa (1896)
Amphitrite class (1876)
USS Puritan (1882)
USS Monterey (1891)
Atlanta class (1884)
USS Chicago (1885)
USS Charleston (1888)
USS Baltimore (1888)
USS Philadelphia (1889)
USS San Francisco (1889)
USS Newark (1890)
USS New York (1891)
USS Olympia (1892)
Cincinatti class (1892)
Montgomery class (1893)
Columbia class (1893)
USS Brooklyn (1895)
USS Vesuvius (1888)
USS Katahdin (1893)
USN Torpedo Boats (1886-1901)
GB USS Dolphin (1884)
Yorktown class GB (1888)
GB USS Petrel (1888)
GB USS Bancroft (1892)
Machias class GB (1891)
GB USS Nashville (1895)
Wilmington class GB (1895)
Annapolis class GB (1896)
Wheeling class GB (1897)
Small gunboats (1886-95)
St Louis class AMC (1894)
Harvard class AMC (1888)
USN Armoured Merchant Cruisers
USN Armed Yachts

☉ Entente Fleets

WW1 American Battleships
USS Texas (1891)
Indiana class battleships (1898)
Kearsage class battleships (1898)
Illinois class (1898)
Maine class (1901)
Virginia class (1904)
Connecticut class (1905)
Mississippi class (1906)
South Carolina class battleships (1908)
Delaware class battleships (1909)
Florida class battleships (1910)
Arkansas class battleships (1911)
New York class Battleships (1912)
Nevada class Battleships (1914)
Pennsylvania class (1915)
New Mexico class battleships (1917)
Tennessee class battleships (1919)
Colorado class battleships (1920)
South Dakota class battleships (1920)
WW1 US Cruisers
Atlanta class (1885)
USS Charleston (1887)
Baltimore class (1888)
Montgomery class (1891)
New Orleans class (1896)
USS Maine (1896)
Denver class (1902)
Pittsburg (Pennslvania) class (1903)
St Louis class (1904)
Memphis (Tennessee) class (1904)
Chester class (1907)
Omaha class (1920)
WW1 USN Destroyers
Bainbridge Class
Truxtun Class
Smith Class
Paulding Class
Cassin Class
O'brien Class
Tucker Class
Sampson Class
Caldwell Class
Wickes Class
Clemson Class
WW1 American Submarines
USS Holland 1897
A class subs 1901
B class subs 1906
C class subs 1907
D class subs 1909
E class subs 1911
F class subs 1911
G class subs 1911
H class subs 1913
K class subs 1914
L class subs 1915
M class subs 1915
N class subs 1916
O class subs 1917
R class subs 1917
S class subs 1918
T(AA) class subs 1918
American Torpedo Boats (1885-1901)
WW1 USN Gunboats
WW1 USN Monitors
WW1 USN Armed Merchant cruisers
WW1 USN armed Yachts
Eagle Boats (1918)
SC 110 ft (1917)
Shawmut class minelayers (1907)
Bird class minesweepers (1917)

WW1 British Battleships
Majestic class (1894)
Canopus class (1897)
Formidable class (1898)
London class (1899)
Duncan class (1901)
King Edward VII class (1903)
Swiftsure class (1903)
Lord Nelson class (1906)
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
Bellorophon class (1907)
St Vincent class (1908)
HMS Neptune (1909)
Colossus class (1910)
Orion class (1911)
King George V class (1911)
Iron Duke class (1912)
Queen Elizabeth class (1913)
HMS Canada (1913)
HMS Agincourt (1913)
HMS Erin (1915)
Revenge class (1915)
N3 class (1920)
WW1 British Battlecruisers
Invincible class (1907)
Indefatigable class (1909)
Lion class (1910)
HMS Tiger (1913)
Renown class (1916)
Courageous class (1916)
G3 class (1918)
ww1 British cruisers
Blake class (1889)
Edgar class (1890)
Powerful class (1895)
Diadem class (1896)
Cressy class (1900)
Drake class (1901)
Monmouth class (1901)
Devonshire class (1903)
Duke of Edinburgh class (1904)
Warrior class (1905)
Minotaur class (1906)
Hawkins class (1917)
Apollo class (1890)
Astraea class (1893)
Eclipse class (1894)
Arrogant class (1896)
Pelorus class (1896)
Highflyer class (1898)
Gem class (1903)
Adventure class (1904)
Forward class (1904)
Pathfinder class (1904)
Sentinel class (1904)
Boadicea class (1908)
Blonde class (1910)
Active class (1911)
'Town' class (1909-1913)
Arethusa class (1913)
'C' class series (1914-1922)
'D' class (1918)
'E' class (1918)
WW1 British Seaplane Carriers
HMS Ark Royal (1914)
HMS Campania (1893)
HMS Argus (1917)
HMS Furious (1917)
HMS Vindictive (1918)
HMS Hermes (1919)
WW1 British Destroyers
26-knotters (1893)
27-knotters (1894)
30-knotters (1895-99)
33-knotters (1895-99)
HMS Viper (1897)
HMS Cobra (1899)
HMS Velox (1899)
River class (1903)
Tribal class (1907)
Cricket class (1906)
HMS Swift (1907)
Albacore class (1906)
Beagle class (1909)
Acorn class (1910)
Acheron class (1911)
Acasta class (1912)
Laforey class (1913)
M/repeat M class (1914)
Faulknor class FL (1914)
Lightfoote class FL (1914)
Medea class (1914)
Talisman class (1915)
Parker claqs FL (1916)
R/Mod R class (1916)
V class FL (1917)
Skakespeare class FL (1917)
Scott class FL (1917)
V class (1917)
W/Mod W class (1917)
S class (1918)
WW1 British Torpedo Boats
125ft series (1885)
140ft series (1892)
160ft series (1901)
WW1 British Submarines
Nordenfelt Submarines (1885)
Holland Type (1901)
A-Class Type (1902)
B-Class Type (1904)
C-Class Type (1906)
D-Class Type (1908)
E-Class Type (1912)
S-Class Type (1914)
V-Class Type (1914)
W-Class Type (1914)
F-Class Type (1915)
H-class Type (1914)
HMS Nautilus (1914)
HMS Swordfish (1916)
G-Class Type (1915)
J-Class Type (1915)
K-Class Type (1916)
L-Class Type (1917)
M-Class Type (1917)
R-Class Type (1918)
WW1 British Monitors
Flower class sloops
British Gunboats of WWI
British P-Boats (1915)
Kil class (1917)
British ww1 Minesweepers
Z-Whaler class patrol crafts
British ww1 CMB
British ww1 Auxiliaries

WW1 French Battlecruisers (Projects)
WW1 French Battleships
Charles Martel class (1891)
Charlemagne class (1899)
Henri IV (1899)
Iéna (1898)
Suffren (1899)
République class (1902)
Liberté class (1904)
Danton class Battleships (1909)
Courbet class (1911)
Bretagne class (1914)
Normandie class battleships (1914)
Lyon class battleships (planned)
WW1 French Cruisers
Dupuy de Lôme (1890)
Admiral Charner class (1892)
Pothuau (1895)
Dunois class (1897)
Jeanne d'Arc arm. cruiser (1899)
Gueydon class arm. cruisers (1901)
Dupleix class arm. cruisers (1901)
Gloire class arm. cruisers (1902)
Gambetta class arm. cruisers (1901)
Jules Michelet arm. cruiser (1905)
Ernest Renan arm. cruiser (1905)
Lamotte Picquet class cruisers (planned)
Cruiser D'Entrecasteaux (1897)
D’Iberville class (1893)
Jurien de la Gravière (1899)
Seaplane Carrier La Foudre (1895)
Kersaint class sloops (1897)
WW1 French Destroyers
WW1 French ASW Escorts
WW1 French Submarines
Plongeur (1863)
Gymnôte (1888)
Gustave Zédé (1893)
Morse (1899)
Narval (1899)
Sirène class (1901)
Farfadet class (1901)
Morse class (1901)
Naiade class (1904)
Aigrette class (1904)
Omega (1905)
Emeraude class (1906)
Circe class (1907)
Pluviose class (1909)
Brumaire class (1910)
Archimede (1909)
Mariotte (1911)
Amiral Bourgeois (1912)
Charles Brun (1910)
Clorinde class (1913)
Zédé class (1913)
Amphitrite class (1914)
Bellone class (1914)
Dupuy de Lome class (1915)
Diane class (1915)
Joessel class (1917)
Lagrange class (1917)
Armide class (1915)
O'Byrne class (1919)
Maurice Callot (1921)
Pierre Chailley (1921)
WW1 French Torpedo Boats
WW1 French river gunboats
WW1 French Motor Boats
WW1 French Auxiliary Warships

WW1 Japanese Battleships
Ironclad Chin Yen (1882)
Fuji class (1896)
Shikishima class (1898)
IJN Mikasa (1900)
Katori class (1905)
Satsuma class (1906)
Kawachi class (1910)
Fusō class (1915)
Ise class (1917)
Nagato class (1919)
Kaga class (1921)
Kii class (planned)
Tsukuba class BCs (1905)
Ibuki class (1907)
Kongō class (1912)
Akagi class (planned)
N°13 class (planned)
WW1 Japanese Cruisers
Naniwa class (1885)
IJN Unebi (1886)
Matsushima class (1889)
IJN Akitsushima (1892)
Suma class (1895)
Chitose class (1898)
Asama class (1898)
IJN Yakumo (1899)
IJN Adzuma (1899)
Tsushima class (1902)
IJN Otowa (1903)
Kasuga class (1904)
IJN Tone (1907)
Yodo class (1907)
Chikuma class (1911)
Tenryu class (1918)
WW1 Japanese Destroyers
WW1 Japanese Submersibles
WW1 Japanese Torpedo Boats
WW1 Japanese gunboats
IJN Wakamiya seaplane carrier (1905)
Natsushima class minelayers (1911)
IJN Katsuriki minelayer (1916)
Japanese WW1 auxiliaries

WW1 Russian Battleships
Tri Sviatitelia (1894)
Poltava (1894)
Rostislav (1896)
Peresviet class (1899)
Pantelimon (1900)
Retvizan (1900)
Tsesarevich (1901)
Borodino class (1901)
Pervoswanny class (1908)
Evstafi class (1910)
Gangut class (1911)
Imperatritsa Mariya class (1913)
Borodino class battlecruisers (1915)
WW1 Russian Cruisers
Rossia class (1896)
Pallada class (1899)
Varyag (1900)
Askold (1900)
Novik (1900)
Bogatyr class (1901)
Boyarin (1901)
Izmurud (1903)
Bayan class (1905)
Rurik (1906)
Svetlana class (1915)
Adm. Nakhimov class (1915)
WW1 Russian Destroyers
Pruitki class (1895)
Bditelni(i) class (1899)
Grozni class (1904)
Ukraina class (1904)
Bukharski class (1905)
Gaidamak class (1905)
Lovki class (1905)
Bditelni class (1905)
Tverdi class (1906)
Storozhevoi class (1906)
Kondratenko class (1906)
Shestakov class (1907)
Novik (1911)
Bespokoiny(Derzki) class (1911)
Orfey class (1911)
Izyaslav class (1911)
Fidonisy(Kerch) class (1911)
WW1 Russian Submarines
WW1 Russian TBs (1899-1905)
WW1 Russian Minelayers
WW1 Russian Minesweepers
Amur class Minelayers (1906)

WW1 Italian Battleships
Re Umberto class (1883)
Amiraglio Di St Bon class (1897)
Regina Margherita class (1900)
Regina Elena class (1904)
Dante Alighieri (1909)
Cavour class (1915)
Doria class (1916)
Caracciolo class battleships (1917)
WW1 Italian Cruisers
Umbria class (1891)
Calabria (1894)
Vettor Pisani class (1895)
Agordat class (1899)
Garibaldi class (1901)
Marco Polo (1892)
Nino Bixio class ()
Pisa class (1907)
San Giorgio class (1907)
Quarto (1911)
Libia (1912)
Campania class (1914)
WW1 Italian Gunboats
Governolo GB (1897)
Brondolo class (1909)
Sebastiano Caboto (1912)
Ape class (1918)
Erlanno Caboto (1918)
Bafile class (1921)
Esploratori (scouts)
Poerio class scouts
Mirabello class scouts
Aquila class scouts
Leone class scouts
WW1 Italian Destroyers
Soldati class
Indomito class
Sirtori class
La Masa class
Palestro class
"Generali" class
Curtatone class
WW1 Italian Torpedo Boats
WW1 Italian Submarines
WW1 Italian Monitors
WW1 Italian Minesweepers
WW1 Italian MAS
Grillo class tracked torpedo launches

✠ Central Empires

WW1 German Battleships
Siegfried class (1889)
Brandenburg class (1892)
Wittelsbach class (1900)
Braunschweig class (1902)
Kaiser Friedrich III class (1904)
Deutschland class (1905)
Nassau class (1906)
Helgoland class (1909)
Kaiser class (1911)
König class (1913)
Bayern class battleships (1916)
Sachsen class (launched)
L20 Alpha (project)
WW1 German Battlecruisers
SMS Blücher (1908)
Von der Tann (1909)
Moltke class (1910)
Seydlitz (1912)
Derrflinger class (1913)
Hindenburg (1915)
Mackensen class (1917)
Ersatz Yorck class (started)
WW1 German Cruisers
Irene class (1887)
SMS Kaiserin Augusta (1892)
SMS Gefion (1893)
SMS Hela (1895)
Victoria Louise class (1896)
Fürst Bismarck (1897)
Gazelle class (1898)
Prinz Adalbert class (1901)
Prinz heinrich (1900)
Bremen class (1902)
Könisgberg class (1905)
Roon class (1905)
Scharnhorst class (1906)
Dresden class (1907)
Nautilus class (1906)
Kolberg class (1908)
Magdeburg class (1911)
Karlsruhe class (1912)
Graudenz class (1914)
Pillau class (1914)
Brummer class (1915)
Wiesbaden class (1915)
Königsberg(ii) class (1915)
Cöln class (1916)
WW1 German Commerce Raiders
SMS Seeadler (1888)
WW1 German Destroyers
WW1 German Submarines
Brandtaucher
U-139 class
U-142 class
UB-II class
UB-III class
UC-II class
Deutschland
UE-II class
WW1 German Torpedo Boats
ww1 German gunboats
ww1 German minesweepers
ww1 German MTBs
Monarch class coastal BS (1895)
Habsburg class
Herzherzog Karl class
Radetzky class (1908)
SMS Kaiser Karl IV (1898)
SMS Sankt Georg (1903)
Tegetthoff class (1911)
Kaiser Franz Joseph I class (1889)
Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia
Admiral Spaun/Novara
Panther class (1885)
Zara class (1880)
Austro-Hungarian Destroyers
Tatra class Destroyers
Austro-Hungarian Submarines
Austro-Hungarian Torpedo Boats
Versuchsgleitboot
Barbarossa class battleships (1892)
Yavuz (1914)
Cruiser Mecidieh (1903)
Cruiser Hamidieh (1903)
Cruiser Midilli (1914)
Namet Torpedo cruisers (1890)
Sahahani Deria Torpedo cruisers (1892)
Destroyers class Berk-Efshan (1894)
Destroyers class Yarishar (1907)
Destroyers class Muavenet (1909)
Berk i Savket class Torpedo gunboats (1906)
Marmaris gunboat (1903)
Sedd ul Bahr class gunboats (1907)
Isa Reis class gunboats (1911)
Preveze class gunboats (1912)
Turkish WW1 Torpedo Boats
Turkish Armed Yachts (1861-1903)
Turkish WW1 Minelayers

⚑ Neutral Countries

Alm. Brown Corvette (1880)
Cruiser Patagonia (1885)
Libertad class CBC (1890)
Cruiser 25 de Mayo (1890)
Cruiser Nueve de Julio (1892)
Cruiser Buenos Aires (1895)
Garibaldi class cruisers (1895)
Espora class TGB (1890)
Patria class TGB (1893)
Argentinian TBs (1880-98)
Marsh. Deodoro class (1898)
Riachuelo (1883)
Minas Geraes class (1908)
Cruiser Alm. Tamandaré (1890)
Cruiser Republica (1892)
Cruiser Alm. Barrozo (1892)
TT Gunboat Talayo (1892)
Brazilian TBs (1879-1893)
BS Alm. Latorre (1913)
BS Capitan Prat (1890)
Pdt. Errazuriz class (1890)
Blanco Encalada (1893)
Esmeralda (1894)
Ministro Zenteno (1896)
O'Higgins (1897)
Chacabuco (1898)
TGB Almirante Lynch (1890)
TGB Alm. Sampson (1896)
Chilean TBs (1880-1902)
Gunboat Baire (1906)
Gunboat Patria (1911)
Diez de octubre class GB (1911)
Sloop Cuba (1911)
GB Toussaint Louverture (1886)
GB Capois la Mort (1893)
GB Crete a Pierot (1895)

Cruiser Zatagosa (1891)
GB Plan de Guadalupe (1892)
Tampico class GB (1902)
N. Bravo class GB (1903)

Almirante Grau class (1906)
Ferre class subs. (1912)
Cruiser Nadezhda (1898)
Drski class TBs (1906)
Skjold class (1896)
Herluf Trolle class (1899)
Herluf Trolle (1908)
Niels Iuel (1918)
Hekla class cruisers (1890)
Valkyrien class cruisers (1888)
Fyen class crusiers (1882)
Danish TBs (1879-1918)
Danish Submarines (1909-1920)
Danish Minelayer/sweepers
Kilkis class
Giorgios Averof class
Eversten class (1894)
Konigin Regentes class (1900)
De Zeven Provincien (1909)
Dutch dreadnought (project)
Holland class cruisers (1896)
Fret class destroyers
Dutch Torpedo boats
Dutch gunboats
Dutch submarines
Dutch minelayers
Haarfarge class (1897)
Norge class (1900)
Norwegian Monitors
Cr. Frithjof (1895)
Cr. Viking (1891)
DD Draug (1908)
Norwegian ww1 TBs
Norwegian ww1 Gunboats
Sub. Kobben (1909)
Ml. Fröya (1916)
Ml. Glommen (1917)

Cruiser Adamastor (1896)
Sao Gabriel class (1898)
Cruiser Dom Carlos I (1898)
Cruiser Rainha Dona Amelia (1899)
Portuguese ww1 Destroyers
Portuguese ww1 Submersibles
Portuguese ww1 Gunboats
Elisabeta (1885)

España class Battleships (1912)
Velasco class (1885)
Cataluna class (1896)
Plata class (1898)
Estramadura class (1900)
Reina Regentes class (1906)
Spanish Destroyers
Spanish Torpedo Boats
Spanish Sloops/Gunboats
Spanish Submarines
Spanish Armada 1898
Svea classs (1886)
Oden class (1896)
Dristigheten (1900)
Äran class (1901)
Oscar II (1905)
Sverige class (1915)
J. Ericsson class (1865)
Gerda class (1871)
Berserk (1873)
HMS Fylgia (1905)
Clas Fleming class (1912)
Swedish Torpedo cruisers
Swedish destroyers
Swedish Torpedo Boats
Swedish gunboats
Swedish submarines
Dingyuan class Ironclads (1881)
Hai Ching class (1874)
Wei Yuan class (1878)
Chao Yung class (1880)
Nan T'an class (1883)
Pao Min (1885)
King Ching class (1885)
Tung Chi class (1895)
Hai Yung class (1897)
Hai Tien class (1898)
Chao Ho class (1911)
Gunboats (1867-1918)
Fu Po class Gunboats (1870)
Torpedo gunboats (1891-1900)
Destroyers (1906-1912)
Torpedo boats (1883-1902)
Maha Chakri (1892)
Thoon Kramon (1866)
Makrut Rajakumarn (1883)

⚏ WW1 3rd/4th rank navies

✈ ww1 naval aviation.

Boeing model 2/3/5 (1916)
Aeromarine 39 (1917)
Curtiss H (1917)
Curtiss F5L (1918)
Curtiss VE-7 (1918)
Curtiss NC (1918)
Curtiss NC4 (1918)
Short 184 (1915)
Fairey Campania (1917)
Felixtowe F2 (1916)
Felixtowe F3 (1917)
Felixtowe F5 (1918)
Sopwith Baby (1917)
Fairey Hamble Baby (1917)
Fairey III (1918)
Short S38 (1912)
Short Admiralty Type 166 (1914)
Short Admiralty Type 184 (1915)
Blackburn Kangaroo
Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter
Sopwith Pup
Sopwith Cuckoo 1918
Royal Aircraft Factory Airships
Albatros W.4 (1916)
Albatros W.8 (1918)
Friedrichshafen Models
Gotha WD.1-27 (1918)
Hansa-Brandenburg series
L.F.G V.19 Stralsund (1918)
L.F.G W (1916)
L.F.G WD (1917)
Lübeck-Travemünde (1914)
Oertz W series (1914)
Rumpler 4B (1914)
Sablatnig SF (1916)
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs series
Kaiserlichesmarine Zeppelins
Borel Type Bo.11 (1911)
Nieuport VI.H (1912)
Nieuport X.H (1913)
Donnet-Leveque (1913)
FBA-Leveque (1913)
Donnet-Denhaut (1915)
Borel-Odier Type Bo-T(1916)
Levy G.L.40 (1917)
Blériot-SPAD S.XIV (1917)
Hanriot HD.2 (1918)
Zodiac Airships
Ansaldo SVA Idro (1916)
Ansaldo Baby Idro (1915)
Macchi M3 (1916)
Macchi M5 (1918)
SIAI S.12 (1918)
Grigorovich M-5 (1915)
Grigorovich M-9 (1916)
Grigorovich M-11 (1916)
Grigorovich M-15 (1916)
Grigorovich M-16 (1916)
Lohner E (1914)
Lohner L (1915)
Oeffag G (1916)
IJN Farman 1914
Yokosho Rogou Kougata (1917)
Yokosuka Igo-Ko (1920)

✪ Allied ww2 Fleets

WW2 US Battleships
Wyoming class (1911)
New York class (1912)
Nevada class (1914)
New Mexico class (1917)
Tennessee Class (1919)
Colorado class (1921)
North Carolina class (1940)
South Dakota class (1941)
Iowa class (1942)
Montana class (cancelled)
WW2 American Cruisers
Omaha class cruisers (1920)
Pensacola class heavy Cruisers (1928)
Northampton class heavy cruisers (1929)
Portland class heavy cruisers (1931)
New Orleans class cruisers (1933)
Brooklyn class cruisers (1936)
USS Wichita (1937)
Atlanta class light cruisers (1941)
Cleveland class light Cruisers (1942)
Baltimore class heavy cruisers (1942)
Alaska class heavy cruisers (1944)
WW2 USN Aircraft Carriers
USS Langley (1920)
Lexington class CVs (1927)
USS Ranger (CV-4)
USS Wasp (CV-7)
Yorktown class aircraft carriers (1936)
Long Island class (1940)
Independence class CVs (1942)
Essex class CVs (1942)
Bogue class CVEs (1942)
Sangamon class CVEs (1942)
Casablanca class CVEs (1942)
Commencement Bay class CVEs (1944)
Midway class CVs (1945)
Saipan class CVs (1945)
WW2 USN destroyers
Farragut class (1934)
Porter class (1935)
Mahan class (1935)
Gridley class (1936)
Bagley class (1936)
Somers class (1937)
Benham class (1938)
Sims class (1939)
Benson class (1939)
Gleaves class (1940)
Fletcher class (1942)
Sumner class (1943)
Gearing class (1944)
GMT Evarts class (1942)
TE Buckley class (1943)
TEV/WGT Rudderow class (1943)
DET/FMR Cannon class
Asheville/Tacoma class
WW2 US Submarines
Barracuda class
USS Argonaut
Narwhal class
USS Dolphin
Cachalot class
Porpoise class
Shark class
Perch class
Salmon class
Sargo class
Tambor class
Mackerel class
USS Terror (1941)
Raven class Mnsp (1940)
Admirable class Mnsp (1942)
Eagle class sub chasers (1918)
PC class sub chasers
SC class sub chasers
PCS class sub chasers
YMS class Mot. Mnsp
ww2 US gunboats
ww2 US seaplane tenders
USS Curtiss ST (1940)
Currituck class ST
Tangier class ST
Barnegat class ST
US Coast Guard
Northland class
Treasury class
Owasco class
Algonquin class
Thetis class
Active class
US Amphibious ships & crafts
US Amphibious Operations
Doyen class AT
Harris class AT
Dickman class AT
Bayfield class AT
Windsor class AT
Ormsby class AT
Funston class AT
Sumter class AT
Haskell class AT
Andromeda class AT
Gilliam class AT
APD-1 class LT
APD-37 class LT
LSV class LS
LSD class LS
Landing Ship Tank
LSM class LS
LSM(R) class SS
LCV class LC
LCVP class LC
LCM(3) class LC
LCP(L) class LC
LCP(R) class SC
LCL(L)(3) class FSC
LCS(S) class FSC

WW2 British Battleships
Queen Elisabeth class (1913)
Nelson class (1925)
King George V class (1939)
Lion class (Started)
HMS Vanguard (1944)
HMS Hood (1920)
WW2 British Cruisers
British C class cruisers (1914-1922)
Hawkins class cruisers (1917)
British D class cruisers (1918)
Enterprise class cruisers (1919)
HMS Adventure (1924)
County class cruisers (1926)
York class cruisers (1929)
Surrey class cruisers (project)
Leander class cruisers (1931)
Arethusa class cruisers (1934)
Perth class cruisers (1934)
Town class cruisers (1936)
Dido class cruisers (1939)
Abdiel class cruisers (1939)
Fiji class cruisers (1941)
Bellona class cruisers (1942)
Swiftsure class cruisers (1943)
Tiger class cruisers (1944)
WW2 British Aircraft Carriers
HMS Eagle (1918)
Courageous class aircraft carriers (1928)
HMS Ark Royal (1937)
Illustrious class (1939)
HMS Indomitable (1940)
Implacable class (1942)
Malta class (project)
HMS Unicorn (1941)
Colossus class (1943)
Majestic class (1944)
Centaur class (started 1945)
HMS Archer (1939)
HMS Audacity (1941)
HMS Archer (1941)
HMS Activity (1941)
HMS Pretoria Castle (1941)
Avenger class (1941)
Attacker class (1941)
Ameer class (1942)
Merchant Aircraft Carriers (1942)
Nairana class (1943)
WW2 British Destroyers
Shakespeare class (1917)
Scott class (1818)
W class (1918)
A/B class (1926)
C/D class (1931)
G/H/I class (1935)
Tribal class (1937)
J/K/N class (1938)
Hunt class DE (1939)
L/M class (1940)
O/P class (1942)
Q/R class (1942)
S/T/U//V/W class (1942)
Z/ca class (1943)
Ch/Co/Cr class (1944)
Battle class (1945)
Weapon class (1945)
WW2 British submarines
L9 class (1918)
HMS X1 (1923)
Odin (O) class (1926)
Parthian (P) class (1929)
Rainbow (R) class (1930)
River (Thames) class (1932)
Swordfish (S) class (1932)
Grampus class (1935)
Shark class (1934)
Triton class (1937)
Undine class (1937)
U class (1940)
S class (1941)
T class (1941)
X-Craft midget (1942)
A class (1944)
WW2 British Amphibious Ships and Landing Crafts
LSI(L) class
LSI(M/S) class
LSI(H) class
Boxer class LST
LST(2) class
LST(3) class
LSH(L) class
LSF classes (all)
LCI(S) class
LCI(L) class
LCS(L2) class
LCT(I) class
LCT(2) class
LCT(R) class
LCT(3) class
LCT(4) class
LCT(8) class
LCG(L)(4) class
LCG(M)(1) class
WW2 British MTB/gunboats
WW2 British MTBs
MTB-1 class (1936)
MTB-24 class (1939)
MTB-41 class (1940)
MTB-424 class (1944)
MTB-601 class (1942)
MA/SB class (1938)
MTB-412 class (1942)
MGB 6 class (1939)
MGB-47 class (1940)
MGB 321 (1941)
MGB 501 class (1942)
MGB 511 class (1944)
MGB 601 class (1942)
MGB 2001 class (1943)
WW2 British Gunboats
Denny class (1941)
Fairmile A (1940)
Fairmile B (1940)
HDML class (1940)
WW2 British Sloops
Bridgewater class (2090)
Hastings class (1930)
Shoreham class (1930)
Grimsby class (1934)
Bittern class (1937)
Egret class (1938)
Black Swan class (1939)
River class (1942)
Loch class (1944)
Bay class (1944)
Kingfisher class (1935)
Shearwater class (1939)
Flower class (1940)
Castle class (1943)
WW2 British Misc.
Roberts class monitors (1941)
Halcyon class minesweepers (1933)
Bangor class minesweepers (1940)
Bathurst class minesweepers (1940)
Algerine class minesweepers (1941)
Motor Minesweepers (1937)
ww2 British ASW trawlers
Basset class trawlers (1935)
Tree class trawlers (1939)
HMS Albatross seaplane carrier
WW2 British river gunboats
HMS Guardian netlayer
HMS Protector netlayer
HMS Plover coastal mines.
Medway class sub depot ships
HMS Resource fleet repair
HMS Woolwhich DD depot ship
HMS Tyne DD depot ship
Maidstone class sub depot ships
HmS Adamant sub depot ship
Athene class aircraft transport
British ww2 AMCs
British ww2 OBVs
British ww2 ABVs
British ww2 Convoy Escorts
British ww2 APVs
British ww2 SSVs
British ww2 SGAVs
British ww2 Auxiliary Mines.
British ww2 CAAAVs
British ww2 Paddle Mines.
British ww2 MDVs
British ww2 Auxiliary Minelayers
British ww2 armed yachts

WW2 French Battleships
Dunkerque class (1935)
Richelieu class (1940)
Gascoigne class (Project)
WW2 French cruisers
Duguay Trouin class (1923)
Duquesne class (1925)
Suffren class (1927)
Pluton (1929)
Jeanne d’Arc (1930)
Algérie (1930)
Emile Bertin (1933)
La Galissonnière class (1934)
De Grasse class (started)
St Louis class (started)
WW2 French Destroyers
Chacal class
Guepard class
Aigle class
Vauquelin class
Le Fantasque class
Mogador class
Bourrasque class
L'Adroit class
Le Hardi class
La Melpomene class TBs
Le fier class TBs
WW2 French Submarines
Requin class
600/630 Tonnes class
Redoutable class
Saphir class (1928)
Surcouf (1929)
Aurore class (1939)
Morillot class (1940)
Emeraude class (project)
Phenix class (project)
Aircraft Carrier Béarn (1923)
Ct Teste seaplane carrier (1929)
Joffre class CVs (started)
French ASW sloops
Bougainville class Avisos
Elan class Minesweepers
Chamois class Minesweepers
French ww2 sub-chasers
Sans souci class seaplane tenders
ww2 French river gunboats
ww2 French AMCs

Sovetsky Soyuz class (started)
Kronstadt class battlecruisers
Krasny Kavkaz (1916)
Svetlana class cruisers (1920)
Kirov class cruisers (1934)
Chapayev class cruisers (1940)
WW2 Soviet Destroyers
Sverdlov (Novik 1911)
Leningrad class (1933)
Tashkent (1937)
Kiev class (1940)
Gnevnyi class (1936)
Storozhevoi class (1936)
Opytinyi (1935)
Ognevoi class (1940)
WW2 Soviet submarines
AG class (1920)
Series I (1928)
Series II (1931)
Series III (1930)
Series IV (1934)
Series V/V bis (1933)
Series VI/VI bis (1933)
Series IX/IX bis (1935)
Series X/X bis (1936)
Series XI (1935)
Series XIII/XIII bis (1937)
Series XV (1940)
Series XIV (1938)
Series XVI (1947)
Soviet ww2 Gunboats and Monitors
Soviet ww2 guardships
Soviet ww2 Minesweepers
Soviet ww2 Minelayers
Soviet ww2 MTBs
Soviet ww2 sub-chasers
Yosif Stalin class icebreakers

Royal Canadian Navy
IROQUOIS class destroyers
Canadian RIVER class
Canadian LOCH class
Canadian FLOWER class
Improved Flower class
Canadian armed trawlers
Canadian MACS

Arunta class destroyers (1940)
HMAS Albatros (1928)
Barcoo class frigates (1943)
Yarra class sloops (1935)

HNLMS De Ruyter (1935)
Java class cruisers (1921)
Tromp Class Cruisers (1937)
Holland class battecruisers (project)
Eendracht class cruisers (project)
Dutch Submarines
Admiralen class destroyers
Tjerk Hiddes class destroyers
Dutch minelayers/minesweepers
Ning Hai class (1931)
WW2 Chinese Gunboats

✙ Axis ww2 Fleets

WW2 Japanese Battleships
Kongō class Fast Battleships (1912)
Fuso class battleships (1915)
Ise class battleships (1917)
Nagato class Battleships (1919)
Yamato class Battleships (1941)
B41 class Battleships (project)
B64/65 Battlecruiser (1939-41)
WW2 Japanese cruisers
Tenryū class cruisers (1918)
Kuma class cruisers (1919)
Nagara class (1921)
Sendai class Cruisers (1923)
IJN Yūbari (1923)
Furutaka class Cruisers (1925)
Aoba class heavy cruisers (1926)
Nachi class Cruisers (1927)
Takao class cruisers (1930)
Mogami class cruisers (1934)
Tone class cruisers (1937)
Katori class cruisers (1939)
Agano class cruisers (1941)
Oyodo (1943)
Seaplane & Aircraft Carriers
IJN Hōshō (1921)
IJN Akagi (1925)
IJN Kaga (1927)
IJN Ryujo (1931)
IJN Soryu (1935)
IJN Hiryu (1937)
Shokaku class (1940)
Zuiho class (1937)
Ruyho (1933)
Hiyo class (1941)
Chitose class (1943)
IJN Taiho (1944)
IJN Shinano (1944)
Unryu class (1944)
IJN Ibuki (1942)
Taiyo class (1940)
IJN Kaiyo (1938)
IJN Shinyo (1934)
Notoro (1920)
Kamoi (1922)
Chitose class (1936)
Mizuho (1938)
Nisshin (1939)
IJN Aux. Seaplane tenders
Akistushima (1941)
Shimane Maru class (1944)
Yamashiro Maru class (1944)
Imperial Japanese Navy Aviation
WW2 Japanese Destroyers
Mutsuki class (1925)
Fubuki class (1927)
Akatsuki class (1932)
Hatsuharu class (1932)
Shiratsuyu class (1935)
Asashio class (1936)
Kagero class (1938)
Yugumo class (1941)
Akitsuki class (1941)
IJN Shimakaze (1942)
WW2 Japanese Submarines
KD1 class (1921)
Koryu class
Kaiten class
Kairyu class
IJN Midget subs
WW2 Japanese Amphibious ships/Crafts
Shinshu Maru class (1935)
Akistu Maru class (1941)
Kumano Maru class (1944)
SS class LS (1942)
T1 class LS (1944)
T101 class LS (1944)
T103 class LS (1944)
Shohatsu class LC (1941)
Chuhatsu class LC (1942)
Moku Daihatsu class (1942)
Toku Daihatsu class (1944)
WW2 Japanese minelayers
IJN Armed Merchant Cruisers
WW2 Japanese Escorts
Tomozuru class (1933)
Otori class (1935)
Matsu class (1944)
Tachibana class (1944)
WW2 Japanese Sub-chasers
WW2 Japanese MLs
Shinyo class SB

WW2 Italian battleships
Littorio class battleships
Cavour class battleships
Doria class battleships (1916)
WW2 Italian Cruisers
Alberto di Giussano class
Trento class (1927)
Cadorna class (1931)
Zara class Cruisers (1931)
R. Montecuccoli class (1934)
Duca d'Aosta class (1935)
Duca degli Abruzzi class (1937)
Costanzo Ciano class (1939)
Capitani Romani class (1941)
Giuseppe Miraglia
Aircraft carrier Aquila
WW2 Italian Destroyers
Leone class destroyers
Sella class
Sauro class
Turbine class
Navigatori class
Freccia class
Folgore class
Maestrale class
Oriani class
Cdt Medaglie d'Oro class
WW2 Italian TBs
Spica class
Pegaso class
Ciclone class
Ariete class
WW2 Italian Submarines
Balilla class
Archimede class
Glauco class
Marcello class
Liuzzi class
Marconi class
Cagni class
Romolo class
Mameli class
Pisani class
Bandiera class
Squalo class
Bragadin class
Settembrini class
Argonauta class
Sirena class
Perla class
Acciaio class
Flutto class
ww2 Italian light MBs
MS class boats
VAS class ASW boats
MTS class (1940)
SLC/SSB class
Eritrea sloop (1936)
Diana sloop (1942)
Gabbaiano class Corvettes (1942)
Italian minelayers
Italian gunboats

ww2 german battleships
Bismarck class Battleships (1940)
Scharnhorst class battleships (1936)
Deutschland class Cruisers (1931)
K class Battleships
ww2 german cruisers
KMS Emden (1925)
Königsberg class cruisers (1927)
Leipzig class cruisers (1929)
Hipper class cruisers (1937)
KMS Graf Zeppelin (1939)
WW2 German submarines: U-Boats
Seeteufel (1944)
Type Ia U-Boats (1936)
Type II U-Boats (1935)
Type IX U-Boats (1936)
Type VII U-Boats (1933)
Type XB U-Boats (1941)
Type XIV U-Boats (1941)
Type XVII U-Boats (1945)
Type XXI U-Boats (1944)
Type XXIII U-Boats (1944)
Prototype U-Boats (1942-45)
German mini-subs and human torpedoes
WW2 German Destroyers
1934/34A Type
Beute Zerstörer
Spähkreuzer (1940)
WW2 German Torpedo Boats
F class escorts
ww2 German minesweepers
S-Bootes (E-Boats)
Other Light Boats
Manta (paper project, 1944)
WW2 German Amphibious Ships
German Commerce Raiders
Bremse minelayer
Brummer minelayer
Brummer(II) minelayer
Saar tender
Bauer class tenders
Tsingtau tender
Tanga tender
Lüderitz class tenders
Nachtigal class tenders
Grille minelayer
Hela tender
Castor minelayer
Togo AA Cd ship

⚑ Neutral Navies

Rivadavia class Battleships
Cruiser La Argentina
Veinticinco de Mayo class cruisers
Argentinian Destroyers
Santa Fe class sub.
Bouchard class minesweepers
King class patrol vessels

Minas Gerais class Battleships (1912)
Cruiser Bahia
Brazilian Destroyers
Humaita class sub.
Tupi class sub.
Almirante Latorre class battleships
Cruiser Esmeralda (1896)
Cruiser Chacabuco (1911)
Chilean DDs
Fresia class subs
Capitan O’Brien class subs
Danish ww2 Torpedo-Boats
Danish ww2 submarines
Danish ww2 minelayer/sweepers

Coastal BB Vainamoinen
Finnish ww2 submarines
Finnish ww2 minelayers
Greek ww2 Destroyers
Greek ww2 submarines
Greek ww2 minelayers

Cruiser ORP Dragon
Cruiser ORP Conrad
Brislawicka class Destroyers
Witcher ww2 Destroyers
Minelayer Gryf
Wilk class sub.
Orzel class sub.
Jakolska class minesweepers
Polish Monitors

Douro class DDs
Delfim class sub
Velho class gb
Albuquerque class gb
Nunes class sloops
Romanian ww2 Destroyers
Romanian ww2 Submarines

Norwegian ww2 Torpedo-Boats

España class Battleships
Blas de Lezo class cruisers
Canarias class cruisers
Cervera class cruisers
Cruiser Navarra
Dédalo Seaplane Carrier
Spanish Gunboats
Spanish Minelayers

Sverige class CBBs (1915)
Gustav V class CBBs (1918)
Interwar Swedish CBB projects
Tre Kronor class (1943)
Gotland (1933)
Fylgia (1905)
Ehrernskjold class DDs (1926)
Psilander class DDs (1926)
Klas Horn class DDs (1931)
Romulus class DDs (1934)
Göteborg class DDs (1935)
Mode class DDs (1942)
Visby class DDs (1942)
Öland class DDs (1945)
Swedish ww2 TBs
Swedish ww2 Submarines
Swedish ww2 Minelayers
Swedish ww2 MTBs
Swedish ww2 Patrol Vessels
Swedish ww2 Minesweepers

Kocatepe class Destroyers
Tinaztepe class Destroyers
İnönü class submarines
Submarine Dumplumpynar
Submarine Sakarya
Submarine Gur
Submarine Batiray
Atilay class submarines

Cruiser Dalmacija
Dubrovnik class DDs
Beograd class DDs
Osvetnik class subs
Hrabi class subs
Gunboat Beli Orao
Taksin class
Ratanakosindra class
Sri Ayuthia class
Puket class
Tachin class
Sinsamudar class sub

✈ Naval Aviation

Douglas DT (1921)
Naval Aircraft Factory PT (1922)
Loening OL (1923)
Huff-Daland TW-5 (1923)
Martin MO (1924)
Consolidated NY (1926)
Vought FU (1927)
Vought O2U/O3U Corsair (1928)
Berliner-Joyce OJ (1931)
Curtiss SOC seagull (1934)
Grumman FF (1931)
Grumman F2F (1933)
Grumman F3F (1935)
Northrop BT-1 (1935)
Grumman J2F Duck (1936)
Curtiss SBC Helldiver (1936)
Vought SB2U Vindicator (1936)
Brewster F2A Buffalo (1937)
Douglas TBD Devastator (1937)
Vought Kingfisher (1938)
Curtiss SO3C Seamew (1939)
Douglas SBD Dauntless (1939)
Grumman F4F Wildcat (1940)
Northrop N-3PB Nomad (1941)
Brewster SB2A Buccaneer (1941)
Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger (1941)
Consolidated TBY Sea Wolf (1941)
Grumman F6F Hellcat (1942)
Vought F4U Corsair (1942) ➚
F4U Corsair (NE)
Curtiss SB2C Helldiver (1942)
Curtiss SC Seahawk (1944)
Douglas BTD Destroyer (1944)
Grumman F7F Tigercat (1943)
Grumman F8F Bearcat (1944)
Ryan FR-1 Fireball (1944)
Douglas XTB2D-1 Skypirate (1945) ➚
Douglas AD-1 Skyraider (1945)
Aeromarine 40 (1919)
Naval Aircraft Factory PN (1925)
Douglas T2D (1927)
Consolidated P2Y (1929)
Hall PH (1929)
Douglas PD (1929)
Douglas Dolphin (1931)
General Aviation PJ (1933)
Consolidated PBY Catalina (1935)
Fleetwings Sea Bird (1936)
Sikorsky VS-44 (1937)
Grumman G-21 Goose (1937)
Consolidated PB2Y Coronado (1937)
Beechcraft M18 (1937)
Sikorsky JRS (1938)
Boeing 314 Clipper (1938)
Martin PBM Mariner (1939)
Grumman G-44 Wigeon (1940)
Martin Mars (1943)
Goodyear GA-2 Duck (1944)
Edo Ose (1945) ➚
Hugues Hercules (1947)
Fairey Flycatcher (1922)
Blackburn Backburn (1923)
Blackburn Dart (1924)
Blackburn Ripon (1926)
Fairey IIIF (1927)
Fairey Seal (1930)
Vickers Vildebeest (1933)
Blackburn Shark (1934)
Blackburn Baffin (1934)
Fairey Swordfish (1934)
Blackburn Skua (1937)
Gloster Sea Gladiator (1937)
Blackburn Roc (1938)
Fairey Albacore (1940)
Fairey Fulmar (1940)
Grumman Martlet (1941)
Hawker sea Hurricane (1941)
Brewster Bermuda (1942)
Fairey Barracuda (1943)
De Havilland Mosquito FB Mk.XVIII (1942)
Grumman Gannet (1942)
Supermarine seafire (1942)
Grumman Tarpon (1943)
Fairey Firefly (1943)
Blackburn Firebrand (1944)
Hawker Sea Fury (1944)
Supermarine Seafang (1945)
De Havilland Sea Mosquito (1945)
De Havilland Sea Hornet (1946)
Supermarine Channel (1919)
Supermarine Sea King (1920)
Fairey Pintail (1920)
Supermarine Seagull (1922)
Fairey N.4 (1923)
Vickers Viking (1924)
Supermarine Scarab (1924)
English Electric Kingston (1924)
Blackburn Velos (1925)
Supermarine Southampton (1925)
Blackburn Iris (1926)
Saro A.17 Cutty Sark (1929)
Saro A.19 Cloud (1930)
Short Rangoon (1930)
Short Kent (1931)
Hawker Osprey (1932)
Saro London (1934)
Short S.19 Singapore (1934)
Supermarine Scapa (1935)
Supermarine Stranraer (1936)
Supermarine Walrus (1936)
Fairey Seafox (1936)
Airspeed AS.30 Queen Wasp (1937)
Short Sunderland (1937)
Supermarine Sea Otter (1938)
Short S.30/33 Empire (1938)
Saro A36 Lerwick (1940)
Short Seaford (1944)
Mitsubishi 1MF (1923)
Nakajima A1N (1930)
Nakajima A2N (1932)
Mitsubishi A5M "Claude" (1935)
Nakajima A4N (1935)
Mitsubishi A6M "zeke" (1940)
Nakajima J1N Gekko "Irving" (1941)
Mitsubishi J2M Raiden "Jack" (1942)
Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden "George" (1942)
Nakajima J5N Tenrai (1944)
Aichi S1A Denko* (1944)
Mitsubishi A7M reppu* (1944)
Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui* (1945)
Mitsubishi J8M2 Shusui-kai* (1945)
Kyushu J7W Shinden* (1945)
Nakajima J9Y Kikka* (1945)
Mitsubishi 1MT (1922)
Mitsubishi B1M (1923)
Mitsubishi B2M (1932)
Kugisho B3Y (1932)
Aichi D1A "Susie" (1934)
Yokosuka B4Y "Jean" (1935)
Mitsubishi B5M "Mabel" (1937)
Nakajima B5N "Kate" (1937)
Aichi D3A "Val" (1940)
Nakajima B6N "Jill" (1941)
Aichi B7A "Grace" (1942)
Nakajima C6N Saiun "Myrt" (1942)
Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" (1942)
Yokosuka MXY-7 "Baka" (1944)
Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" (1935)
Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" (1941)
Kawanishi P1Y Ginga "Frances" (1943)
Kyushu Q1W Tokai "Lorna" (1943)
Tachikawa Ki-74 "Patsy" (1944)
Nakajima G8N Renzan "Rita" (1944)
Mitsubishi K3M "Pine" (1930)
Nakajima C2N1 (1931)
Yokosuka K5Y1 "Willow" (1933)
Nakajima L1N1 (1937)
Kawanishi H6K2/4-L (1938)
Kyushu K10W1 "Oak" (1941)
Kyushu K11W1 Shiragiku (1942)
Mitsubishi L4M1 (1942)
Nakajima G5N Shinzan "Liz" (1942)
Yokosuka L3Y "Tina" (1942)
Kyushu Q1W1-K "Lorna"(1943)
Aichi M6A1-K Nanzan (1943)
Yokosuka MXY-7K-1 "Kai" (1944)
Yokosuka MXY-8 Akigusa (1945)
Hiro H1H (1926)
Yokosuka E1Y (1926)
Nakajima E2N (1927)
Aichi E3A (1929)
Yokosuka K4Y (1930)
Nakajima E4N (1931)
Nakajima E8N "Dave" (1935)
Kawanishi E7K "Alf" (1935)
Kawanishi E11K1 (1937)
Aichi E11A "Laura" (1938)
Watanabe E9W (1938)
Watanabe K8W* (1938)
Mitsubishi F1M "pete" (1941)
Nakajima E14Y "Glen" (1941)
Aichi E13A "Jake" (1941)
Aichi H9A (1942)
Nakajima A6M2-N (1942)
Kawanishi E15K Shiun (1942)
Kawanishi N1K1 "Rex" (1943)
Aichi E16A "Zuiun" (1944)
Aichi M6A1 Seiran (1945)
Kawanishi E11K* (1937)
Kawanishi H6K "Mavis" (1938)
Kawanishi K6K* (1938)
Kawanishi H6K3 (1939)
Kawanishi K8K (1940)
Kawanishi H8K "Emily" (1942)
Yokosuka H5Y "Cherry" (1936)
Mitsubishi 2MR (1923)
Yokosho K1Y (1924)
Yokosuka K2Y (1928)
Hitachi LXG1 (1934)
Kyushu K10W "Oak" (1943)
CANT Z.501 Gabbiano
CANT Z.506 Airone
Caproni Ca.316
Fiat CR.20 Idro
Savoia-Marchetti S.55
Savoia-Marchetti S.57
Savoia-Marchetti S.59
Savoia-Marchetti SM.62
Levasseur PL5/9 (1924)
Wibault 74 (1926)
CAMS 37 (1926)
Gourdou-Leseurre GL.300 series (1926-39)
Levasseur PL7 (1928)
Levasseur PL10 (1929)
Latécoere 290 (1931)
Breguet 521/22/23 (1931)
Leo H257 bis (1932)
Latécoere 300 series (1932)
Morane 226 (1934)
Dewoitine 376 (1934)
Latécoere 321 (1935)
Potez 452 (1935)
Latécoere 38.1 (1936)
Loire 210 (1936)
Leo H43 (1936)
Levasseur PL107 (1937)
Loire 130 (1937)
Dewoitine HD.730 (1938)
Latecoere 298 (1938)
LN 401 (1938)
Shavrov SH-2 (1928)
Tupolev TB-1P (1931)
Tupolev MR-6 (1933)
Beriev MBR-2 (1930)
Beriev Be-2 (1936)
Beriev BE-4 (1940)
Tupolev MTB-1 (1941)
Tupolev MTB-2 (1942)
Arado 197 (1937)
Fieseler Fi-167 (1938)
Junkers Ju-87C (1938)
Messerschmitt Me 109T (1941)
Messerschmitt 155 (1944)
Heinkel HE 1 (1921)
Caspar U1 (1922)
Dornier Do J Wal (1922)
Dornier Do 16 ‘Wal’ (1923)
Heinkel HE 2 (1923)
Junkers A 20/Ju 20 (1923)
Rohrbach Ro II (1923)
Rohrbach Ro III (1924)
Dornier Do D (1924)
Dornier Do E (1924)
Junkers G 24 (1924)
Rohrbach Ro IV (1925)
Heinkel HD 14 (1925)
Heinkel HE 25 (1925)
Heinkel HE 26 (1925)
Heinkel HE 24 (1926)
Heinkel HE 4 (1926)
Junkers W 33/34 (1926)
Heinkel HE 5 (1926)
Rohrbach Ro VII Robbe (1926)
Rohrbach Ro V Rocco (1927)
Heinkel HE 31 (1927)
Heinkel HE 8 (1927)
Arado W II (1928)
Heinkel HD 9 (1928)
Heinkel HD 16 (1928)
Heinkel He 55 (1929)
Heinkel He 56 (1929)
Arado SSD I (1930)
Junkers Ju 52w (1930)
Heinkel HE 42 (1931)
Heinkel He 50 (1931)
Heinkel He 59 (1931)
Arado Ar 66 (1932)
Heinkel He 58 (1932)
Junkers Ju 46 (1932)
Klemm Kl 35bW (1932)
Heinkel He 62 (1932)
Heinkel He 60 (1933)
Heinkel He 51w (1933)
Arado Ar 95 (1937)
Arado Ar 196 (1937)
Arado Ar 199 (1939)
Blohm & Voss Ha 139 (1936)
Blohm & Voss BV 138 (1937)
Blohm & Voss Ha 140 (1937)
Blohm & Voss BV 222 (1938)
Blohm & Voss BV 238 (1942)
Dornier Do 24/318 (1937)
Dornier Do 18 (1935)
Dornier Do 26 (1938)
Dornier Do 22 (1938)
DFS Seeadler (1936)
Focke-Wulf Fw 58W (1935)
Focke-Wulf Fw 62 (1937)
Heinkel He 114 (1936)
Heinkel He 115 (1936)
Heinkel He 119 (1936)
Fokker W.3 (1915)
Fokker T.II (1921)
Fokker B.I/III (1922)
Fokker B.II (1923)
Fokker T.III (1924)
Fokker T.IV (1927)
Fokker B.IV (1928)
Fokker C.VII W (1928)
Fokker C.VIII W (1929)
Fokker C.XI W (1934)
Fokker C.XIV-W (1937)
Fokker T.VIII-W (1939)

☢ The Cold War

☭ warsaw pact.

Chapayev class (1945)
Kynda class (1961)
Kresta I class (1964)
Kresta II class (1968)
Kara class (1969)
Kirov class (1977)
Slava class (1979)
Moksva class (1965)
Kiev class (1975)
Kusnetsov class aircraft carriers (1988)
Skoryi class destroyers (1948)
Neustrashimyy (1951)
Kotlin class (1953)
Kildin class (1959)
Krupny class (1959)
Kashin class (1963)
Kanin class (1967)
Sovremenny class (1978)
Udaloy class (1980)
Project Anchar DDN (1988)
Kola class (1951)
Riga class (1954)
Petya class (1960)
Mirka class (1964)
Grisha class (1968)
Krivak class (1970)
Koni class (1976)
Neustrashimyy class (1988)
Poti class (1962)
Nanuchka class (1968)
Pauk class (1978)
Tarantul class (1981)
Dergach class (1987)
Svetlyak class (1989)
Whiskey SSK (1948)
Zulu SSK (1952)
Quebec SSK (1950)
Romeo SSK (1957)
November SSN (1957)
Golf SSB (1957)
Hotel SSBN (1959)
Echo I SSGN (1959)
Echo II SSGN (1961)
Juliett SSG (1962)
Foxtrot SSK (1963)
Victor SSN I (1965)
Yankee SSBN (1966)
Alfa SSN (1967)
Charlie SSGN (1968)
Papa SSGN (1968)
Victor II SSN (1971)
Tango SSK (1972)
Delta I SSBN (1972)
Delta II SSBN (1975)
Victor III SSN (1977)
Delta III SSBN (1976)
Delta IV SSBN (1980)
Typhoon SSBN (1980)
Oscar SSGN (1980)
Sierra SSN (1982)
Mike SSN (1983)
Akula SSN (1984)
Kilo SSK (1986)
Kamov Ka-10 Hat
Kamov Ka-15 Hen
Kamov Ka-18 Hog
Kamov Ka-25 Hormone
Kamov Ka-27 Helix
Mil Mi-14 Haze
Mil Mi-4 Hound
Yakovlev Yak-38
Sukhoi Su-17
Sukhoi Su-24
Ilyushin Il-28 Beagle
Myasishchev M-4 Bison
Tupolev Tu-14 Bosun
Tupolev Tu-142
Ilyushin Il-38
Tupolev Tu-16
Antonov An-12
Tupolev Tu-22
Tupolev Tu-95
Tupolev Tu-22M
Beriev Be-6 Madge
Beriev Be-10 Mallow
Beriev Be-12
Lun class Ekranoplanes
A90 Orlan Ekranoplanes
P2 class FACs
P4 class FACs
P6 class FACs
P8 class FACs
P10 class FACs
Komar class FACs (1960)
Project 184 FACs
OSA class FACs
Shershen class FACs
Mol class FACs
Turya class HFL
Matka class HFL
Pchela class FACs
Sarancha class HFL
Babochka class HFL
Mukha class HFL
Muravey class HFL
MO-V sub-chasers
MO-VI sub-chasers
Stenka class sub-chasers
kronstadt class PBs
SO-I class PBs
Poluchat class PBs
Zhuk clas PBs
MO-105 sub-chasers
Project 191 River Gunboats
Shmel class river GB
Yaz class river GB
Piyavka class river GB
Vosh class river GB
Saygak class river GB
Yurka class
Gorya class
Project 255 class
Sasha class
Vanya class
Zhenya class
Almaz class
Sonya class
Yevgenya class
Andryusha class
Ilyusha class
Alesha class
Rybak class
Baltika class
SChS-150 class
Project 696 class
MP 10 class
Polocny class
Ropucha class
Alligator class
Ivan Rogov class
Aist class HVC
Pomornik class HVC
Gus class HVC
T-4 class LC
Ondatra class LC
Lebed class HVC
Tsaplya class HVC
Utenov class

Parchim class corvettes (1985)
Hai class sub-chasers (1958)
Volksmarine's minesweepers
Volksmarine's FAC
Volksmarine's Landing ships

ORP Warzsawa (1970)
ORP Kaszub (1986)
Polish Landing ships
Polish FACs
Polish Patrol ships
Polish Minesweepers

Missile Destroyer Muntenia (1982)
Tetal class Frigates (1981)
Romanian river patrol crafts

✦ NATO

Zerstorer class DDs (1958)
Hamburg class DDs (1960)
Lütjens class missile DDs (1965)
Gneisenau class FFs (1958)
Scharnhorst class FFs (1959)
Köln class FFs (1958)
Deutschland FFG (1960)
Bremen class FFs (1979)
Brandenbug class FFs (1992)
Hai class SSK (1957)
Type 201 class SSK (1961)
Type 202 class SSK (1965)
Type 205 class SSK (1962)
Type 206 class SSK (1971)
Type 209 class SSK (1972)
Bundesmarine amphibious ships
Thetis class corvettes
Corvette Hans Burkner
Rhein class suppert ships
Mosel class support ships
Lahn class support ships
Silbermöwe class FACs
Jaguar class FACs
Hugin/Pfeil FACs
Zobel class FACs
S41 class FACs
S61 class FACs
S71 class FACs
KW class PBs
Kw 15 class PBs
Neustadt class PBs
Bamberg class minelayers
Sachsenwald class mine transports
Type 319 minesweepers
Lindau class minesweepers
Vegesack class minesweepers
Schutze class minesweepers
Bundesmarine R Boote
Hansa inshore Ms.
Ariadne class inshore Ms.
Frauenlob class inshore Ms.
Holnis class indhore Ms.
Hameln class indhore Ms.
Frankentahl class indhore Ms.
Hvidbjornen class Frigates (1962)
Frigate Beskytteren (1976)
Peder Skram class Frigates (1965)
Thetis class frigates (1989)
Bellona class corvettes (1955)
Niels Juel class corvettes (1979)
Delfinen class submarines (1958)
Narhvalen class submarines (1970)
Bille class Torpedo Boats (1946)
Flyvefisken class Torpedo Boats (1954)
Falken class Torpedo Boats (1960)
Soloven class Torpedo Boats (1962)
Willemoes class FAC (1976)
Flyvefisken class FAC (1989)
Daphne class Patrol Boats (1960)
Danish Minelayers
Danish Minesweepers
CV Karel Doorman (1948)
De Zeven Provinciën class cruisers (1945)
Holland class DDs (1953)
Friesland class DDs (1953)
Roodfier class Frigates (1953)
Frigate Lynx (1954)
Van Speijk class Frigates (1965)
Tromp class Frigates (1973)
Kortenaer class frigates (1976)
Van H. class Frigates (1983)
K. Doorman class Frigates (1988)
Dolfijn clas sub. (1959)
Zwaardvis class subs. (1970)
Walrus class subs. (1985)
ATD Rotterdam (1990s)
Dokkum class minesweepers (1954)
Alkmaar class minesweepers (1982)
Hydra class FFs (1990)
Greek cold war Subs
Greek Amphibious ships
Greek MTBs/FACs
Greek Patrol Vessels

Eithne class PBs (1983)
Cliona class PBs
Deidre/Emer class PBs
Orla class fast PBs

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1983)
Conte di Cavour (2004)*
Trieste (2022)*
Missile cruiser Garibaldi (1960)
Doria class H. cruisers (1962)
Vittorio Veneto (1969)
Impetuoso class (1956)
Impavido class (1957)
Audace class (1971)
De La Penne class (1989)
Orizzonte class (2007)*
Grecale class (1949)
Canopo class (1955)
Bergamini class (1960)
Alpino class (1967)
Lupo class (1976)
Maestrale class (1981)
Bergamini class (2013)*
Thaon di Revel class (2020)*
Albatros class (1954)
De Cristofaro class (1965)
Minerva class (1987)
Cassiopeia class (1989)
Esploratore class (1997)*
Sirio class (2003)*
Commandanti class (2004)*
Toti class (1967)
Sauro class (1976)
Pelosi class (1986)
Sauro class (1992)*
Todaro class (2006)*
San Giorgio LSD (1987)
Gorgona class CTS (1987)
Italian Landing Crafts (1947-2020)
Folgore PB (1952)
Lampo class PBs (1960)
Freccia class PBs (1965)
Sparviero class GMHF (1973)
Stromboli class AOR (1975)
Anteo SRS (1980)
Etna class LSS (1988)
Vulcano AOR (1998)*
Elettra EWSS (2003)*
Etna AOR (2021)*
Lerici class (1982)
Gaeta class (1992)*

Jean Bart (1949)
PA 28 class project (1947)
Arromanches (1946)
Clemenceau class (1957)
Jeanne d'Arc (1961)
PA 58 (1958)
PH 75/79 (1975)
Charles de Gaulle (1994)
De Grasse (1946)
Chateaurenault class (1950)
Colbert (1956)
Surcouf class (1953)
Duperre class (1956)
La Galissonniere class (1960)
Suffren class (1965)
Aconit (1970)
Tourville class (1972)
G. Leygues class (1976)
Cassard class (1985)
Le Corse class (1952)
Le Normand class (1954)
Cdt Riviere class (1958)
Estiennes D'Orves class (1973)
Lafayette class (1990)
Floreal class (1990)
La Creole class (1940)
Narval class (1954)
Arethuse class (1957)
Daphne class (1959)
Gymnote test SSBN (1964)
Le Redoutable SSBN (1967)
Agosta SSN (1974)
Rubis SSN (1979)
Amethyste SSN (1988)
Le Triomphant SSBN (started 1989)
Issole (1958)
EDIC class (1958)
Trieux class (1958)
Ouragan lass (1963)
Champlain lass (1973)
Bougainville (1986)
Foudre class (1988)
CDIC lass (1989)
Le Fougueux class (1958)
La Combattante class (1964)
Trident class (1976)
L'Audacieuse class (1984)
Grebe class (1989)
Sirius class (1952)
Circe class (1972)
Eridan class (1979)
Vulcain class (1986)

HCMS Bonaventure (1957)
St Laurent class DDE (1951)
Algonquin class DDE (1952)
Restigouche class DDs (1954)
Mackenzie class DDs (1961)
Annapolis class DDH (1963)
Iroquois class DDH (1970)
River (mod) 1955
Tribal class FFs (Pjct)
City class DDH (1988)
Ojibwa class sub. (1964)
Kingston class MCFV (1995)

Cold War Aircraft Carriers
Centaur class (1947)
HMS Victorious (1957)
HMS Eagle (1946)
HMS Ark Royal (1950)
HMS Hermes (1953)
CVA-01 class (1966 project)
Invincible class (1977)
Tiger class (1945)
Daring class (1949)
1953 design (project)
Cavendish class (1944)
FADEP program (1946)
County class GMD (1959)
Bristol class GMD (1969)
Sheffield class GMD (1971)
Manchester class GMD (1980)
Type 43 GMD (1974)
Rapid class (1942)
Tenacious class (1941)
Whitby class (1954)
Blackwood class (1953)
Leopard class (1954)
Salisbury class (1953)
Tribal class (1959)
Rothesay class (1957)
Leander class (1961)
BB Leander class (1967)
HMS Mermaid (1966)
Amazon class (1971)
Broadsword class (1976)
Boxer class (1981)
Cornwall class (1985)
Duke class (1987)
T (conv.) class (1944)
T (Stream) class (1945)
A (Mod.) class (1944)
Explorer class (1954)
Strickleback class (1954)
Porpoise class (1956)
Oberon class (1959)
HMS Dreanought SSN (1960)
Valiant class SSN (1963)
Resolution class SSBN (1966)
Swiftsure class SSN (1971)
Trafalgar class SSN (1981)
Upholder class (1986)
Vanguard class SSBN (started)
Fearless class (1963)
HMS Ocean (started)
Sir Lancelot LLS (1963)
Sir Galahad (1986)
Ardennes/Avon class (1976)
Brit. LCVPs (1963)
Brit. LCM(9) (1980)
Ton class (1952)
Ham class (1947)
Ley class (1952)
HMS Abdiel (1967)
HMS Wilton (1972)
Hunt class (1978)
Venturer class (1979)
River class (1983)
Sandown class (1988)
HMS Argus ATS (1988)
Ford class SDF (1951)
Cormorant class (1985)
Kingfisger class (1974)
HMS Jura OPV (1975)
Island class OPVs (1976)
HMS Speedy PHDF (1979)
Castle class OPVs (1980)
Peacock class OPVs (1982)
MBT 538 class (1948)
Gay class FACs (1952)
Dark class FACs (1954)
Bold class FACs (1955)
Brave class FACs (1957)
Tenacity class PCs (1967)
Brave class FPCs (1969)

Armada de espanola - Spanish cold war navy

Dédalo aircraft carrier (1967)
Principe de Asturias (1982)
Alava class DDs (1946)
Audaz class DDs (1955)
Oquendo class DDs (1956)
Roger de Lauria class (1967)
Baleares class FFs (1971)
Descubierta class FFs (1978)
Numancia class FFs (1987)
Pizarro class gunboats (1944)
Artevida class Cvs (1952)
Serviola class Cvs (1990)
Spanish cold-war submarines
Spanish FACs
Spanish Minesweepers
Tre Kronor class (1946)
Halland class DDs (1952) (1945)
Ostergotland class DDs (1956)
Spica III class Corvettes (1984)
Goteborg class Corvettes (1989)
U1 class subs (mod.1963)
Hajen class subs (1954)
Sjoormen class subs (1967)
Nacken class subs (1978)
Vastergotland class subs (1986)
Gotland class subs (1995)
T32 class MTBs (1951)
T42 class MTBs (1955)
Plejad class FACs (1951)
Spica I class FACs (1966)
Spica II class FACs (1972)
Hugin class FACs (1973)
Swedish Patrol Boats
Swedish minesweepers
Swedish Icebreakers

Kwang Hua class FFs (1991)
Kwang Hua II class FFs (1993)
Hai Lung class sub. (1986)
LCU 1466 class LCU (1955)
Fuh Chow class FAC
Lung Chiang class FAC
Hai Ou class FAC(M)
MWW 50 class minehunters

Berk class FFs (1971)
Atilay class sub. (1974)
Cakabey class LST
Osman Gazi class LST
Turkish Fast Attack Crafts
Turkish Patrol Boats

Aircraft carriers
United States class (1950)
Essex SBC-27 (1950s)
Midway class (mod)
Forrestal class (1954)
Kitty Hawk class (1960)
USS Enterprise (1960)
Nimitz Class (1972)
Iowa Class (cold war)
Des Moines Class (1947)
Worcester Class (1948)
Boston Class (1955)
Galveston Class (1958)
Providence Class (1958)
Albany Class (1962)
USS Long Beach (1960)
Leahy Class (1961)
USS Bainbridge (1961)
Belknap Class (1963)
USS Truxtun (1964)
California Class (1971)
Virginia Class (1974)
CSGN Class (1976)
Ticonderoga Class (1981)
Mitscher class (1952)
Fletcher DDE (1950s)
USS Norfolk (1953)
F. Sherman class (1956)
Farragut class (1958)
Charles F. Adams class (1958)
Gearing FRAM I class (1960s)
Sumner FRAM II class (1970s)
Spruance class (1975)
Dealey class (1953)
Claud Jones class (1958)
Bronstein class (1962)
Garcia class (1963)
Brooke class (1963)
Knox class (1966)
OH Perry class (1976)
Guppy class Submarines (1946-59)
Barracuda class SSK (1951)
Tang class SSK (1951)
USS Darter SSK (1956)
Mackerel class SSK (1953)
USS Albacore SSK (1953)
USS X1 Midget subs (1955)
Barbel class SSK (1958)
USS Nautilus SSN (1954)
USS Seawolf SSN (1955)
Skate class SSN (1957)
Skipjack class SSN (1958)
USS Tullibee SSN (1960)
Tresher/Permit class SSN (1960)
Sturgeon class SSN (1963)
Los Angeles class SSN (1974)
Seawolf class SSN (1989)
Grayback class SSBN (1957)
USS Halibut SSBN (1959)
Gato SSG (1960s)
E. Allen class SSBN (1960)
G. Washington class SSBN (1969)
Lafayette class SSBN (1962)
Ohio class SSBN (1979)
Migraine class RP (1950s)
Sailfish class RP (1955)
USS Triton class RP (1958)
Iwo Jima class HC (1960)
Tarawa class LHD (1973)
Wasp class LHD (1987)
Thomaston class LSD (1954)
Raleigh class LSD (1962)
Austin class LSD (1964)
Anchorage class LSD (1968)
Whibdey Island class LSD (1983)
Parish class LST (1952)
County class LST (1957)
Newport class LST (1968)
Tulare class APA (1953)
Charleston class APA (1967)
USS Carronade support ship (1953)
Agile class (1952)
Ability (1956)
Avenger (1987)
USS Cardinal (1983)
Adjutant class (1953)
USS Cove (1958)
USS Bittern (1957)
Minesweeping boats/launches
USS Northampton CS (1951)
Blue Ridge class CS (1969)
Wright class CS (1969)
PT812 class (1950)
Nasty class FAC (1962)
Osprey class FAC (1967)
Asheville class FACs (1966)
USN Hydrofoils (1962-81)
Vietnam Patrol Boats (1965-73)
Hamilton class (1965)
Reliance class (1963)
Bear class (1979)
cold war CG PBs

☯ ASIA

Type 7 Anshan class (1955)
Type 051 Luda class (1972)
Type 052 Luhu Class (1991)
Type 065 Chengdu class (1956)
Type 065 Jiangnan class (1967)
Type 053K Jiangdong class (1973)
Type 053H Jianghu class (1977)
Type 053H2G Jiangwei I class (1990)
Type 03 class (1956)
Type 033 class (1963)
Ming class (1973)
Han class SSN (1970)
Xia class SSBN (1981)
Wuhan class SSBN (1987)
Huchuan class THF (1966)
Hoku class FAC (1965)
Huangfeng class FAC (1966)
Hola class FAC (1966)
Houxin/Houjian class FAC (1990s)
Yu Ling class LST (1971)
Yukan class LST (1978)
Yudao class LST (1980)
Yunnan class LC (1968)
Huangpu class RPC (1950)
Shantou class CPC (1956)
Shanghai class LPC (1959)
Hainan class LPC (1964)
Yulin class RPC (1964)
Haikou class LPC (1968)
Haijui class LPfC (1987)
Chinese Minesweepers

Vikrant class CVs (1961)
Viraat class CVs (1986)
Cruiser Delhi (1948)
Cruiser Mysore (1957)
Raja class DDs (1949)
Rajput class DDs (1980)
Delhi class DDs (1990)
Khukri class FFs (1956)
Talwar class FFs (1958)
Brahmaputra class FFs (1957)
Nilgiri class FFs (1968)
Godavari class FFs (1980)
Kusura class subs (1970)
Shishumar class subs (1984)
Sindhugosh class subs (1986)
Indian Amphibious ships
Indian corvettes (1969-90)
Khukri class corvettes (1989)
SDB Mk.2 class PBs (1977)
Vikram class OPVs (1979)
Sukanya class OPVs (1989)

Fatahilla class Frigates (1977)
Pattimura class corvettes (1956)
Indonesian Marines
Indonesian Mine Vessels
Indonesian FAC/OPVs

Harukaze class DD (1955)
Ayanami class DD (1957)
Murasame class DD (1958)
Akizuki class DD (1959)
Amatukaze missile DD (1963)
Yamagumo class DDE (1965)
Takatsuki class DD (1966)
Minegumo class DDE (1967)
Haruna class DDH (1971)
Tachikaze class DD (1974)
Shirane class DDH (1978)
Hatsuyuki class DDs (1980)
Hatakaze class DDs (1984)
Asigiri class DDs (1986)
Kongo class DDs (started 1990)
Akebono class FFs (1955)
Isuzu class FFs (1961)
Chikugo class FFs (1970)
Ishikari class FFs (1980)
Yubari class FFs (1982)
Abukuma class FFs (1988)
Oyashio class Sub. (1959)
Hayashio class Sub. (1961)
Natsushio class Sub. (1963)
Oshio class Sub. (1964)
Uzushio class Sub. (1970)
Yushio class Sub. (1979)
Harushio class Sub. (1989)
Japanese Landing Ships
Japanese Large Patrol Ships
Japanese Patrol Crafts
Japanese Minesweepers
Japanese Sub-chasers

Najin class Frigates
Experimental Frigate Soho
Sariwan class Corvettes
Sinpo class subs.
Sang-O class subs.
Yono class subs.
Yugo class subs.
Hungnam class LCM
Hante class LST
Songjong class HVC
Sin Hung/Ku Song FACs
Anju class FACs
Iwon class FACs
Chaho class FACs
Hong Jin class FAC-G
Sohung class MTBs
Sinpo class MTBs
Nampo class FALC

Datu Kalantian class Frigates (1976)
Bacolod City class LS(L)
Philippino Patrol Crafts

Ulsan class frigates (1980)
Pohang class corvettes (1984)
Dong Hae class corvettes (1982)
Han Kang class patrol corvettes (1985)
Chamsuri (PKM 268) PBs (1978)
ROKS coast guard vessels
Paek Ku class FAC (1975)
Kang Keong class minehunters (1986)

☪ MIDDLE EAST

Eilat class Corvettes (1993)
SAAR 5 Project
SAAR 4.5 FAC
Dvora class FAC
Shimrit class MHFs
IDF FACs/PBs
Etzion Geber LST
Ash class LCT

Destroyer Artemiz (1965)
Bayandor class FFs (1963)
Alvand class FFs (1969)
Khalije Fars class DDs (2016)*

♅ OCEANIA

HMAS Sydney (1948*)
HMAS Melbourne (1955*)
Tobruk class DDs (1947)
Voyager class DDs (1952)
Perth class MDD (1963)
Quadrant class FFs (1953)
Yarra class FFs (1958)
Swan class FFs (1967)
Adelaide class MFFs (1978)
Anzac class MFFs (1990s)
Oxley class subs (1965)
Collins class subs (1990s)
Australian Amphibious ships
Fremantle class PBs

HMNZS Royalist (1956)
Pukaki class patrol Crafts (1974)
Moa class patrol crafts (1983)
HMNZS Aotearoa (2019)*

☩ South America

ARA Independencia (1958)
ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (1968)
Belgrano class cruisers (1951)
Almirante Brown class Frigates (1981)
Mantilla class corvettes (1981)
Espora class corvettes (1982)
Salta class submarines (1972)
Santa Cruz class submarines (1982)

Minas Gerais aircraft carrier (1956)
Cruiser Barroso (1951)
Cruiser Tamandare (1951)
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Wager class destroyers (1950)
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Grumman Mallard 1946
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de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver 1947
Grumman Albatross 1947
Hughes H-4 Hercules (completed & first flight, prototype)
Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 1947 (jet fighter seaplane prototype)
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Martin P5M Marlin 1948
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Norsk Flyindustri Finnmark 5A (interesting Norwegian prototype)
SNCASE SE-1210 French prototype flying boat 1949
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Saunders-Roe Princess 1952 (RN requisition possible)
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Martin P6M SeaMaster strategic bomber flying boat 1955
Ikarus Kurir H 1957
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Shin Meiwa PS-1 patrol flying boat 1967
Canadair CL-215 1967 water bomber, some operated by the RCAN
GAF Nomad patrol australian land/floatplane 1971
Harbin SH-5 Main PLAN patrol flying boat 1976
Cessna 208 Caravan transport flotplane (some navies) 1982
Dornier Seastar prototype 1984

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ATR 42 MP Surveyor (Italy, 1984)
ATR 72 MP (Italy 1988)
ATR 72 ASW (France, 1988)
Breguet Atlantic (France 1965)
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Avro Shackleton (UK 1949)
BAE Nimrod MRA4 (UK 2004)
Britten-Norman Defender/Islander (UK 1970)
Fairey Gannet (UK 1949)
Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod (UK 1967)
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Basler BT-67 (USA 1990)
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Lockheed P-2 Neptune (USA, 1945)
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Canadair CP-107 Argus (Can 1957)
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CASA/IPTN CN-235 MPA/HC-144 Ocean Sentry (Spain 1983)
CASA C-295 MPA (Spain 1997)
Diamond DA42 Guardian (Austria 2002)
Dornier 228 (Germany 1981)
Embraer EMB 111 Bandeirante (Brazil 1968)
Embraer R-99 (Brazil 2001)
Embraer P-99 (Brazil 2003)
Fokker F27 200-MAR (NL 1955)
Fokker F27 Maritime Enforcer (NL 1955)
IAI 1124N Sea Scan (Israel 1977)
Kawasaki P-1 (Japan 2007)
Kawasaki P-2J (Japan 1966)
Saab Swordfish (Sweden 2016)
Shaanxi Y-8F,Q,X (China 1984)
Short Seavan (UK 1976)
Beriev Be-8 1947
Beriev Be-6 1949
Beriev R-1 turbojet prototype seaplane 1952
Beriev Be-10 1956
Beriev Be-12 Chaika 1960
Beriev Be-40/A-40 Albatross prototypes 1986
Chetverikov TA-1 1947
Ilyushin Il-38 'May' (USSR 1967)
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Harbin Z-5 (1958)
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Today, satellites are the battle fleet's keenest eyes. But during World War II, crews aboard lumbering flying boats provided distant, early warning of enemy ships and aircraft at sea. The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the U. S. Navy's most successful patrol flying boat of the war but naval aviators also used the PBY to attack ships at night, and to search for and rescue people stranded at sea. Following World War II, large seaplanes and flying boats suffered a mass extinction. The war caused a tremendous surge in concrete runway construction around the world, and wartime research and development pushed the range of aircraft beyond the span of the world's oceans. Seaplanes continued for some years after the war to serve special needs but land-based aircraft rapidly became more efficient at delivering most goods and services whether commercial or military.

Many aviation experts considered the PBY Catalina obsolete when the war started but combat proved the critics wrong. The 'Cat' had two noteworthy attributes that made the airplane prized by American aviators and the flight crews of other Allied nations: great range and excellent durability. By VJ Day, August 15, 1945, Consolidated and its licensees had built 3,282 PBYs, more than any flying boat or seaplane ever built.

Today, satellites are the battle fleet's keenest eyes but during World War II, crews aboard lumbering flying boats provided distant, early warning of enemy ships and aircraft at sea. The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the U. S. Navy's most successful patrol flying boat of the war but naval aviators also used the PBY to attack ships at night, and to search for and rescue people stranded at sea. Following World War II, large seaplanes and flying boats suffered a mass extinction. The war caused a tremendous surge in concrete runway construction around the world, and wartime research and development pushed the range of aircraft beyond the span of the world's oceans. Seaplanes continued for some years after the war to serve special needs but land-based aircraft rapidly became more efficient at delivering most goods and services whether commercial or military.

Many aviation experts considered the PBY Catalina obsolete when the war started, but combat proved the critics wrong. The 'Cat' had two noteworthy attributes that made the airplane prized by American aviators and the flight crews of other Allied nations: great range and excellent durability. By VJ Day, August 15, 1945, Consolidated and its licensees had built 3,282 PBYs, more than any flying boat or seaplane ever built.

Reuben Hollis Fleet founded the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in May 1923 at East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Fleet had been an army aviator during World War I, served as the first Officer-in-Charge of the U. S. Airmail after the war, and later Contracting Officer for the U. S. Army Air Service. In 1928, the old Curtiss works at Buffalo, New York, housed the company. That year, Fleet started a long association with military flying boats when he began working on the XPY-1 Admiral patrol bomber. Isaac M. Laddon, whom Fleet hired the pervious year, became the project engineer. Consolidated could not entice the cash-strapped Navy into buying this twin-engine, parasol-wing, monoplane flying boat but the company pressed on to build and operate the airplane as a civil transport called the Commodore.

In 1931, an improved version of the Commodore, designated the P2Y-1, finally drew the Navy's attention and procurement officers purchased a number of these aircraft to operate as patrol bombers. Consolidated continued to refine this design and in 1933, the Navy ordered a new prototype called the XP3Y-1. Consolidated engineers improved this variant in several significant ways. They adopted metal as the primary construction material for the entire flying and they fitted it with a single vertical stabilizer and rudder rather than the twin-tail used on earlier versions. The massive pylon that supported the parasol-wing above the fuselage incorporated a flight engineer's station. From this vantage point, the engineer could closely inspect the two engines mounted on the leading edge of the wing. Engineers also suspended outrigger floats from each wingtip, hinged to fold up after takeoff. The XP3Y-1 had provisions for bomb racks that held 907 kg (2,000 lb) of bombs. The new aircraft impressed Navy leaders and they ordered it into production as the PBY-1, or Patrol Bomber, Consolidated design number 1. The 'Cat' was off and running.

Following the first XPY3-1 flight on March 21, 1935, the Navy ordered sixty production PBY-1s. Improved variants followed and Consolidated also sold commercial versions. The PBY-2 had a revised tail structure, and the PBY-3 used 1,000-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-1830-66 engines more powerful than the earlier 900-horsepower R-1830-64s. The airplane company built a small number of the PBY-4 version equipped with 1,050-horsepower R-1830-72s. Several of these flying boats had gun mounts built into Plexiglas blisters on the aft fuselage that replaced the waist gun hatches built into previous variants. Engineers also revised the tail structure and engine nacelles.

At this time, Fleet and Laddon believed they could not significantly improve the PBY series, and that it was time for an entirely fresh, new design. Hitler's invasion of Poland erased this notion. Now the U. S. Navy needed many long-range patrol aircraft, as quickly as it could acquire them. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had ordered the Navy to cover vast areas of the U. S. coastline "extending several hundred miles" into the Atlantic, the 'Neutrality Patrol.' On December 20, 1939, the U.S. Navy ordered 200 PBY-5s. This latest edition in the PBY line incorporated the changes tested on the PBY-4s mentioned above, plus more powerful engines. The PBY-5 could fly at a maximum speed of about 282 kph (175 mph) at an altitude of about 2,128 m (7,000 ft). The airplane had a service ceiling of about 4,469 m (14,700 ft) and the crew could fly the PBY-5 a distance of about 4,097 km (2,545 miles) without refueling.

The demand for production Catalinas became so great that Consolidated contracted with these companies to build license versions of the PBY-5: Naval Aircraft Factory built modified '-5s as the PBN-1 Nomad, Boeing Aircraft of Canada built the PB2B-1 and '-2, and Canadian Vickers Ltd. built the Canso for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the OA-10A for the U. S. Army Air Forces. The final development model of the PBY series was the PBY-6A, equipped with new radar, twin .50 caliber guns in a power-driven bow turret, and a new tail with a taller vertical fin first seen on the PBN-1.

War in Europe led other Allied combatants to ask for PBYs. Catalinas served with Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF), patrolling far-flung reaches of the British Empire. The RAF actually named the aircraft the Catalina, after Santa Catalina Island, California. An RAF PBY of 209 Squadron, with American Navy Ensign Leonard B. Smith flying as co-pilot, sighted the elusive German Battleship "Bismarck" on May 26, 1941, and the Royal Navy promptly sank the menacing warship the following day. PBYs also went to Australia and the Netherlands East Indies. During the Battle of the Atlantic, PBYs sank a number of U-boats but forced many more to remain submerged during daylight. This forced the German submarines to recharge their batteries at night, wasting valuable time otherwise spent attacking Allied ships. In the European Theater, most military operators did not put the Catalinas and their crews directly in harm's way. Most commanders felt that the PBY lacked the defensive armament to fend off Luftwaffe fighters and patrol aircraft such as the Focke Wulf FW 200 Condor or the Junkers Ju 88 but several dramatic duels with these aircraft disproved the idea that PBY crews could not defend themselves.

In the Pacific, the Catalina crews purposely sought direct combat with the Japanese. At Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese destroyed most of six squadrons of U.S. Navy PBYs. Just before the raid, a Catalina assisted in spotting and attacking one of the Japanese midget submarines that attempted to sneak into the harbor. Less than six months later, Navy Catalinas got their opportunity for revenge. On June 3, 1942, PBYs of U. S. Navy Patrol Squadron VP-44 spotted the Japanese fleet steaming at high speed toward Midway Island. This timely sighting gave the U.S. fleet the opportunity to surprise the enemy fleet with an attack by torpedo and dive bombers launched from the aircraft carriers "Hornet," "Enterprise," and "Yorktown." The ensuing battle marked the turning point in the Pacific War after dive bombers sank four Japanese aircraft carriers.

Navy flight crews aboard PBYs also played an important role in the Guadalcanal campaign. They spotted and attacked many Japanese ships attempting to land reinforcements on the island. Navy Catalinas equipped with radar and painted black also attacked Japanese shipping at night. These "Black Cat" raids were highly effective and usually caught the Japanese by surprise. PBY crews also dive-bombed land targets in the Aleutian Islands. Navy PBY airmen also conducted "Dumbo" rescue missions that saved countless airmen and sailors adrift in the Pacific Ocean. On February 15, 1943, U. S. Navy Lt. Nathan Gordon earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for rescuing 15 airmen in rough seas under near-continuous enemy fire.

The PBY-5 and all earlier versions were true flying boats without the means to land on any medium except water. Sailors could wrestle the big Catalina ashore and park it using wheeled beaching gear but the process was slow and difficult. Trying to repair or maintain the airplane in the water could also be very challenging. Consolidated first flew an improved PBY-5A with a retractable undercarriage during November 1939. The amphibian capability breathed new life into the design and made the Catalina ideal for the new Emergency Rescue Squadrons (ERS) that the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) began forming in 1943. The ERS Catalinas, designated OA-10s, provided crucial air rescue cover for crews forced to bail out or ditch over the ocean. This ERS became critical in the Pacific, once USAAF Boeing B-29 Superfortresses (see NASM collection) began operations against the Japanese home islands. The bombers often flew at the limit of their range, and even relatively minor damage could force the aircrews to ditch.

After the war, many PBYs continued to fly for commercial operators. Civil Cat' crews carried passengers and freight in far-flung areas of the world that lacked suitable airfields. Many post war PBYs became fire bombers. The crew of a Catalina fire bomber could land on a lake and scoop four tons of water in fourteen seconds. The crews of land-based aircraft had to waste valuable time returning to an airfield to refill their tanks.

In the early 1960s, the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum acquired the last surviving PBY-5 (although a number of PBY-5As still survive). The U.S. Navy had accepted this Catalina on February 28, 1943, and navy crews flew patrols in this airplane from Pensacola, Florida. The flying boat now resides on loan at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.

This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.

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The epic journey to return the oldest and most historically significant Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina in flying condition to the United States has begun. PBY-5A Bu. No. 2459 departed Lelystad Airport (EHLE) in the Netherlands on May 29th, 2019 for Wick, Scotland (EGPC) to prepare the PBY for the transoceanic crossing of the North Atlantic. The crew will depart for Reykjavík, Iceland on May 30th, where it will be on display at the Reykjavik Airshow on June 1st. On Sunday, June 2nd, it will make the crossing to Narsarsuaq, Greenland, then to Goose Bay, Labrador and then make entry into the United States via Bangor, Maine after June 3rd depending on weather conditions.

The route of PBY-5A Bu. No. 2459 from the Netherlands to the United States – May 29 through June 3/4

The route for the journey traces the very routes of convoys this PBY protected during the Battle for the Atlantic early in World War II. It will fly over the barren stretches of open ocean that were the hunting grounds for the German “Wolfpacks” of U-Boats that were tasked with sinking the merchant ships enroute to England carrying critical supplies for the Allied war effort.

Gallery of Images from the Crossing Flight (Will be updated as images are taken)

The World War II History of PBY-5A Catalina Bu. No. 2459

Capable of excellent endurance over the hostile North Atlantic, PBY Catalina aircraft began to protect convoys before aircraft carriers and the evolution of surface ship technology was able to assist them. The PBY type aircraft accounted for 20 German U-Boats destroyed during the war. PBY Bu. No. 2459 uniquely accounted for three destroyed U-Boats and one damaged that never sailed again — it is the only USN multiple U-Boat killer aircraft known. It is also the oldest surviving PBY Catalina and has survived as a flying aircraft since the end of the war.

Catalina Bu. No. 2459 was one of the first five PBY-5A amphibians constructed, and the group was sent to VP-73 as soon as they rolled off the line due to the “extremely hazardous” sea conditions off Iceland. Accepted by the Navy on December 22, 1941, Bu. No. 2459 was the fourth amphibious PBY built for the United States Navy, and was immediately pressed into action upon arrival. Assigned to VP-73 as aircraft number 9, it was the first PBY to sink a U-Boat, when Lt. RB Hopgood’s crew discovered and sunk U-464 on August 20, 1942. The ASW detachment in Iceland had been attempting to sink a U-Boat for some time, and the commander of the base, believing that too many late nights at the “O Club” were responsible for the lack of success, had closed the club. Lt. Hopgood after seeing the crew rescued by a fishing boat, as well the oil slick from the sunken sub sent an “in the clear” radio message that would become iconic in the USN’s patrol community, “Sunk sub, open club!”

That history alone makes Bu. 2459, the “one to have”. However on October 5, 1942 flying with a crew headed by Chief Aviation Pilot M. Luke and flying the last VP-73 convoy protection mission of the deployment, Bu 2459 protecting convoy HX-209 caught U-582 on the surface and sunk it as it was organizing a wolfpack attack. The U-Boat, one of 16 deployed against the convoy was sunk with all hands. This attack brought VP-73’s score to two sunk, both by Bu. 2459. Returning to the USA, about half of VP-73’s allocated PBY aircraft survived the first deployment.

Rebuilt at a depot for continued service it reentered the fleet assigned to VP-84, again in Reykjavik, coded as 84-P-7. Flown by Lt. Joseph Beach on June 24, 1943, it proved it still had the heart of a hunter, and spotted U-194 on the surface south of Iceland. Depth charging the sub on the surface and exchanging gunfire, the two combatants fought to a standstill. After a long surface battle the Captain of U-194, after realizing the PBY would be persistent, dove and attempted to disengage from the Catalina.

What was unknown to the crew at the time was that the PBY carried a new and secret weapon, a “FIDO” acoustic homing torpedo. Though the sub was initially reported as a damaged by the crew not seeing it sink visually, postwar research confirmed that U-194 was destroyed that day in the North Atlantic. Incidentally PBY Bu. 2459 was the second aircraft to sink a submarine using the homing torpedo, a revolutionary development in aircraft based ASW warfare.

The Role of the PBY-5A in the Collings Foundation

The new acquisition of PBY-5A Bu. No. 2459 by the Collings Foundation allows us to place this aircraft in a new role to help tell the important story of U.S. Naval Aviation in the Battle of the Atlantic in the early days of World War II.

Once back in the United States, the aircraft will be sent to restoration for transformation back into the original configuration it flew with in 1942. This means that the modern “clipper bow” will be removed and replaced by an accurate bow turret and the current interior will be transformed into accurate wartime configuration. The aircraft will be repainted as aircraft #9 with VP-73.

The massive mission of relocating the aircraft through the North Atlantic and then restoring the aircraft to wartime configuration requires a considerable sum. Throughout the history of the Collings Foundation, individual donors have stepped up and helped get the job done and once again we are currently asking for donations to help us fulfill the mission and return the most historic, flyable U.S. Navy aircraft from World War II to the United States.

Please consider donating what you can… from $20 to a full plane sponsorship of $7000 to help the cause. If you wish, please use the donation form at the link below or donate by mail to the address below.

Donate online: Online donation form for the PBY-5A Catalina Fund

Donate by mail: Mail checks to:

Collings Foundation Attn: PBY-5A Fund 568 Main Street Hudson, MA 01749 Phone: 978-562-9182

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The Collings Foundation is a non-profit, Educational Foundation (501c-3), founded in 1979. The purpose of the Foundation is to organize and support "living history" events that enable Americans to learn more about their heritage through direct participation.

The Collings Foundation P.O. Box 248 Stow, MA 01775 Phone: (978) 562-9182 Fax: (978) 568-8231 General: [email protected] Booking: [email protected] PX Sales: [email protected] Website: [email protected]

COVID-19 Event Cancellations & Closure

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts, the Father's Day Open House / "Tanks, Wings, & Wheels" event in partnership with the American Heritage Museum has been CANCELLED for June 20-21, 2020. Additionally, the American Heritage Museum is CLOSED until Phase III re-openings are announced in the state. We will make announcements here and on our Facebook page when re-opening is announced.

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July 31, 2023

Catalina Aircraft to relaunch iconic flying boat

Above: The NGAA ‘Catalina II’ will be ‘a common platform for many uncommon missions’

Florida-based Catalina Aircraft, which holds type certificates for the PBY-5A Catalina with US and Canadian civil aviation regulators, has revealed plans to launch a modernized version of the iconic amphibian.

The original Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibious flying boat first flew in 1936 and served 41 nations during World War Two across a variety of missions. An estimated 3,308 variants were built between 1936-1945 and the type was also used extensively by a variety of airlines.

After supporting the continued airworthiness of ‘legacy Catalinas’ around the world for the last 14 years, Catalina Aircraft have ‘made the decision to formalize a production re-start programme to bring [the] beloved Catalina back into mainstream service as a new production twin turboprop amphibious flying boat’. Following discussions with ‘several governments, militaries, agencies and commercial operators, and receiving positive interest from those parties,’ Catalina Aircraft plan to offer the Next-Generation Amphibious Aircraft (NGAA) Catalina II to both military and civilian customers.

Describing the many capabilities that the modernized platform offers, “being capable of performing so many unique missions, and in a variety of market segments,” company president Lawrence Reece added that “interest in the rebirth of this legendary amphibian has been extraordinary”.

The NGAA Catalina II is set to be the largest, fastest, ‘most capable amphibious aircraft available worldwide with Western Certifications’ and will feature modern engines and avionics to give the aircraft ‘capabilities no other amphibian can provide today’. Noting that as 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, the manufacturer also believes the new Catalina will offer customers and end-users a unique platform to travel and operate ‘in regions of the world not supported by traditional airport infrastructure’.

Although no firm orders have yet been announced, Catalina Aircraft anticipates to commence deliveries of the new platform in 2029.

IMAGE: CATALINA AIRCRAFT

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Cat Tales: Consolidated’s PBY Flying Boat

1935 was a vintage year for first flights. It saw the arrival of three enormously capable, ahead-of-their-time airplanes that played a huge part in winning World War II: the Boeing B-17, Douglas DC-3/C-47 and Consolidated PBY flying boat, later to become an amphibian as well.

The deeds of the Flying Fortress and C-47 are widely known, but the PBY casts a less obvious shadow across wartime history. And it doesn’t help that the “Pigboat,” as some of its admirers grudgingly call it, didn’t have the warlike mien of the iconic B-17 or the rugged grace of the C-47.

Well, rugged it had…grace, not so much.

But never mind, the PBY, like all great objects of industrial design, exuded an air of absolute purposefulness. The Consolidated team that limned its lines knew exactly what to include and what to leave off: a shapely, minimal hull rather than a standard flying boat barge; two tightly cowled and wing-faired engines close to the centerline, ideal for single-engine handling, though they made directional control on the water a bit difficult; a towering, fish-tail vertical fin to help with the steering both on the water and in the air; clean, cantilever, strutless horizontal stabilizers; and the colossal, fuel-fat wing that gave the PBY range and endurance far beyond anything else with propellers.

Even the waist-blister goiters that became so much a part of the flying boat’s look when they were added to the PBY-4 might have seemed excessive, but they were effective gunnery and observation posts. After all, the famous “Attu Zero,” the largely undamaged example of the Japanese navy’s mythic fighter, was discovered by an airsick crewman who had leaned into his PBY’s blister and opened it to vomit just as the crashed Mitsubishi flashed below him.

The PBY wasn’t without its teething troubles, however. Though the prototype came in over 600 pounds lighter than the contract specified, with a stall speed 10 mph slower and a top speed 12 mph faster with a substantially shorter takeoff run, the vertical tailfin needed to be increased in size to add stability. When the prototype made its first rough-water landings, in 4- and 5-foot seas, the impact of one full-stall touchdown blew out the bombardier’s window and the forward hatch, cracked the windshield, wrinkled the hull and damaged all six prop blades. Consolidated pointed out that a less robust boat would have sunk, but it quickly added numerous stiffeners and gussets.

New flying boat pilots complained that the PBY was brutally heavy on the controls. Old-timers accustomed to the open-cockpit biplane boats that had preceded it laughed and opined that the PBY was light and responsive. Having flown a B-17 of the same era, I can attest that one pilot’s “light and responsive” is another’s “at least I don’t have to go to the gym today.”

Open-sea landings required a practiced touch, since the Pigboat asked to be stalled on at minimum speed— a characteristic that soon made it such a superb rough-water boat. Popped rivets and even sprung seams were not uncommon, but crewmen learned to use the navigator’s pencils to plug rivet holes, and pilots soon realized that a touch-and-go or immediate beaching was the only defense against an open hull skin.

The PBY’s single shapely central pylon was thus a great leap forward, following first use of the concept on the slightly earlier Sikorsky S-42. The streamlined pylon put the wing-mounted engines well above spray height, since water can do a surprising amount of damage to prop tips moving at near-supersonic speeds. More important, in combination with four short fuselage struts, it supported the PBY’s glory: the vast ironing board of a wing that was both an enormous fuel tank and a strong, efficient lifting surface. With a beefy continuous I-beam spar and internal bracing, the wing was actually semicantilevered. At the time, the PBY was the cleanest flying boat, dragwise, ever designed.

This PBY-5A shows off some of the Catalina's attributes, long "wet" wings, bulging waist gun positions and dipole radar antennas under each wing. (U.S. Navy)

The pylon was just wide enough to serve as the military flight engineer’s lofty but lonely office, his seat suspended from the wing above him like a playground swing. With a window on each side, it gave him a good view of the nacelles, where any oil leakage would first show up. Many civil and commercial PBYs in use all over the world after WWII, however, dispensed with flight engineers and moved all the controls and engine gauges to the cockpit.

Another PBY innovation was totally retractable wing floats, each of which swung out and upward to fair neatly into the wing, the float itself morphing into a wingtip. Had the usage existed at the time, this feature would have been pronounced “cool”…but as with so many cool things, it wasn’t particularly effective. A PBY’s cruise speed remained about the same whether the floats were extended or retracted, though PBY pilots had to be ready to counteract substantial yaw whenever the tip floats were in motion, since each float often moved asymmetrically, answering to its own retraction system. With the floats down, aileron effectiveness was also substantially decreased.

Another of his team’s PBY novelties was its huge wet wing, the first on any production airplane but today a construction technique that is the aerospace standard. (Laddon had developed the concept for his far smaller Consolidated XBY-1 Fleetster dive-bomber prototype, but only one was built.) A wet wing means that the wing skin itself is the fuel tank, with no need for separate fuel tanks or bladders to be inserted into bays between ribs and spars—a substantial weight-saving feature, but one that of course requires that every seam and rivet be sealed or gasketed. In the case of the PBY, this considerable effort meant half a pound saved per gallon of fuel, or 875 pounds pared.

PBYs came in a variety of dash numbers, but the one that really mattered was the PBY-5, which became the world’s largest amphibian. (Today it’s the Russian Beriev B-200 twin-turbofan firebomber, roughly three times the weight of a PBY.) Early PBYs had simple beaching gear—external wheels and struts that were tugged off manually by a swimsuited launching crew once the airplane had been trundled down a ramp and was afloat in the water. This was how Mac Laddon wanted it—simple, no extra weight, no complex retraction system, no internal space given up to wheel wells. His boss Reuben Fleet, Consolidated’s founder and president, thought flying boats should carry “internal beaching gear” everywhere they went, so they could operate independently without the need for a beaching crew. So a PBY-4 was fitted with retractable gear that was deemed usable only for emergency runway use at light weights, and it became the prototype XPBY-5.

“My theory is that it was Reuben Fleet’s way of persuading his engineers to accept his idea for what he envisioned as a fully amphibious version,” says PBY authority David Legg of that initial retractable beaching gear. Converting it into rugged, reliable, full-time landing gear was no small undertaking. It required substantial strengthening of the hull as well as a powerful hydraulic system, and it wasn’t easy to get good ground handling out of narrow-tread main gear sitting under a tippy 14-ton airplane with a high center of gravity. But the PBY-5A went on to become what is generally considered to be the ultimate variant of Consolidated’s flying boat.

The PBY went by several names, the most common being Catalina, the RAF’s designation for the boats that they bought. (The Brits had no idea there was such a thing as Catalina Island, not far from Consolidated’s San Diego headquarters, but Reuben Fleet suggested it.) The U.S. Navy adopted the name several years later, so it’s correct to call a Navy airplane a PBY Catalina, but there’s no such thing in England, any more than there is an F4F Martlet, a C-47 Dakota or any other dual U.S./British designation; the RAF never used any of the U.S. alphanumeric designators.

The Canadians named their PBYs Cansos, after a river in Nova Scotia, though one groaner has it that when RCAF pilots first saw a PBY, they said, “This thing can’t fly,” and the engineers answered, “It can so.” Late in the war the Naval Aircraft Factory introduced an improved model it called the PBN-1 Nomad, most of which ended up going to the Soviets. Well before the Nomad, however, there were the informally named Black Cats—Pacific patrol bombers that flew mainly at night and were painted overall flat black.

Another major wartime user of the PBY was the Royal Australian Air Force, and it has been said the Catalina was to Australia every bit as important—and to this day iconic—as the Spitfire was to Britain. With a Japanese invasion a very real threat early in the war, RAAF Catalina coastal patrols and missions into the Solomons were crucial, and when the Allies soon went on the offensive, Aussie Cats ranged as far as the coast of China, mine-laying and night-bombing. It’s said that when the RAAF Catalina crews ran out of bombs, they threw out beer bottles with razor blades inserted in the necks. The bottles whistled as they fell in the dark, assumedly frightening the Japanese.

Not many civilians knew what a PBY was until the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. That changed when hundreds of newspaper photos showed the crumpled, blazing PBYs of the six Navy patrol squadrons based at Kaneohe NAS and Ford Island. They had been 81 fine airplanes, most of them new. Only four flyable Catalinas survived, three of them because they had been aloft at the time of the Japanese attack. One of those became the first U.S. aircraft to attack the Japanese, when it bombed a midget submarine an hour before the main assault.

One of some 700 Catalinas purchased by the British, RAF Coastal Command's AH545 located and tracked the battleship "Bismarck." This sighting eventually led to the destruction of the German battleship. (RAF Museum, Hendon)

The Cats and other PBYs were surprisingly effective bombers, under the right conditions. Of the 60 Axis submarines sunk by the Navy in all theaters of the war, 25 went down under bombs from PBYs, plus one spotted by a PBY but sunk by a destroyer. Another 13 were sunk by PB4Ys—the Navy version of the B-24 Liberator—giving Consolidated aircraft credit for almost two-thirds of all subs sunk by the U.S. in WWII. More were deep-sixed by RAF Coastal Command Catalinas and Liberators, but a British Catalina’s most celebrated feat was spotting the battleship Bismarck after it sank the Royal Navy battle cruiser Hood and scuttled away under cover of fog. The Cat didn’t sink the Bismarck , but appropriately, the critical, crippling blow was left to another antique, the Fairey Swordfish.

The PBY’s bombing career started less auspiciously. The first-ever U.S. offensive airstrike of the Pacific War, which came nearly four months before the Doolittle Raid, was flown by six PBYs out of Ambon Island, in the Dutch East Indies, to bomb a Japanese base at Jolo, in the southwest Philippines. PBYs were the only airplanes with the range to make the 1,600-mile round trip. Four of the six were shot down by Japanese fighters, and in his post-action report, one of the surviving pilots wrote, “It is impossible to outrun fighters with a PBY-4. Under no circumstances should PBYs be allowed to come in contact with enemy fighters unless protected by fighter convoy.” A PBY typically cruised at 105 to 125 mph, which meant that a well-armed Cessna could have taken one on.

As the war in Europe heated up and American participation became inevitable, few thought the elderly, minimally armed and painfully slow PBY would be around much longer, so Consolidated started work on its successor, the twin-engine P4Y Corregidor—well before the name became synonymous with defeat. The P4Y might have been an order of magnitude better than the PBY, but we’ll never know; certainly it was an order of magnitude uglier. It had a highaspect-ratio, high-lift, low-drag, laminar-flow wing—the Davis airfoil that was soon to become famous on the B-24—but it was designed to use the powerful but troublesome Wright R-3350 engines desperately needed for the B-29. The War Department canceled the P4Y contract after just one prototype was built, and the Louisiana factory that was built to crank out Corregidors ended up building yet more Catalinas.

For the U.S. Catalinas, the equivalent of the RAF’s sink-the- Bismarck moment was the brief break in Pacific clouds through which a Navy PBY crew saw the Japanese fleet racing toward Midway. In fact, the same phrases reappear in accounts of nearly every WWII naval battle, Atlantic and Pacific: “A PBY spotted the carrier….While Catalinas shadowed the fleet through the night….As the PBY followed the phosphorescent wakes….When the fog suddenly lifted, the PBY saw the picket destroyers….” Few such slugfests started without at least one PBY tracking the combatants from above.

Particularly in the Pacific theater, air-sea rescue PBYs called Dumbos retrieved thousands of ditched pilots and shipwrecked seamen, often under fire and usually in seas that would have trashed a lesser boat. One Dumbo landed three times to pick up downed bomber crews and eventually took off with 25 extra men aboard; for that mission, Navy Lieutenant Nathan Gordon became the only PBY pilot to be awarded a Medal of Honor. Another Cat needed a three-mile takeoff run to lift a total of 63, including its own crew, and the pounding probably popped half the rivets in the hull. But the record goes to the Australian Catalina that carried 87 Dutch sailors—standing room only, thank you—after Japanese bombers mauled their freighter. With 15,000 pounds of passengers alone, to say nothing of the airplane’s fuel and crew weight, that put the RAAF PBY well over gross, but the Cat’s basic weight-and-balance rule was that if the payload hadn’t yet sunk the boat, it would somehow take off.

Beyond its stellar military service, the PBY enjoyed a long civil history before, during and after WWII, and it isn’t over yet. One of the most widely known of all converted warbirds among people who think Mustangs are cars was the Cousteau Society’s Calypso , operated during the 1970s by the famous oceanographer and environmentalist Jacques-Yves Cousteau and often flown by his son Philippe. Tragically, Philippe Cousteau was killed during a post-overhaul flight test of Calypso when it nosed over during a highspeed water run on the Tagus River, in Portugal, in 1979.

Yet the PBY’s commercial career had started—false-started, actually—a good 40 years earlier, when Consolidated proposed using PBYs as transcontinental airliners that could use lakes and rivers en route for an emergency landing, if necessary. Several American and British airlines did buy PBYs, but as survey airplanes, not passenger carriers.

In 1937 Consolidated did sell one very special civil PBY—it was officially a Model 28—to rich, eccentric zoologist Richard Archbold. A research associate at New York’s Museum of Natural History, Archbold was also a private pilot, so his Consolidated boat became, at least until the advent of converted-warbird corporate transports in the 1950s, the largest private plane in the world.

Archbold named the airplane Guba , a New Guinean word meaning “sudden storm,” and he intended to use it to continue his explorations of the Pacific island. Guba ’s first major flight was a nonstop transcontinental trip from San Diego to New York in 1937, the first ever by a flying boat, establishing a speed record for the category that wasn’t broken until April 1944, by a Navy Martin Mars. Archbold sold Guba to the Soviet government before going on to New Guinea, however, since they desperately needed the aircraft to do long-range searches for the Russian pioneer pilot Sigismund Levanevsky, who was lost in the Arctic (and never found). Archbold immediately bought a second Model 28— Guba II —and not only made it to New Guinea but carried on the rest of the way around the world for another record: the first-ever seaplane circumnavigation.

"Guba," the Consolidated Model 28 used by zoologist Richard Archbold to explore New Guinea, pays a call at Rose Bay, in New South Wales, Australia, in 1939. (Australian National Archives)

Another PBY record that has yet to be broken was set by a small cadre of Catalinas that were operated by the Australian airline Qantas during WWII. They flew privileged passengers between Perth and Ceylon, near India, and from June 1943 to July 1945, several of them stayed aloft, nonstop and unrefueled, for more than 32 hours. Super Airbuses and extended-range 747s fly faster and farther, but none has ever come close to making a longer-duration passenger flight (see “The PBYs That Flew Forever,” July 2011 issue.)

The most impressive lipstick-on-a-Pigboat scheme was the early-1950s Landseaire. Even Egypt’s King Farouk had one on order before his abdication. The base price of a Landseaire was $265,000, which is about $2.3 million today and would be a bargain, since that’s roughly the cost of a bush-taxi Cessna Caravan single on amphibious floats. The Landseaire had 14-foot dinghies under each wing, hoisted to fit flush by cables that had once lifted torpedoes and bombs, and the gunners’ blisters were replaced by one-piece, blown-Lucite “flying bay windows” that invariably were photographed for various magazines (including a snarky Life feature) with a bikinied babe, drink in hand, stretched out on the interior foam-rubber cushion.

Civil Catalina conversions, including the early-1950s Landseaire, featured "flying bay windows" in place of the waist gunners' blisters for easy access to the water. (frans lemmens/Alamy)

Equally well-known—a relative term—among modified PBYs was the Bird Innovator, the world’s only four-engine Cat. A California company added a pair of 340-hp, geared Lycoming flat-6 engines outboard of the stock 1,200-hp Pratt radials to provide better performance at high gross weights as well as improved water maneuverability—the Lycs had reversible three-blade props—but apparently the Innovator was the answer to a question nobody had bothered to ask. Only one was built, and a subsequent owner eventually removed the extra engines.

One thing that civil PBY conversions accomplished was a necessary bit of beautification: what came to be known as the “clipper bow,” a fairing-in of the cowl ahead of the windscreen to eliminate the awkward nose turret. If there was one discordant note in the Cat’s refrain, it was that squared-off little greenhouse that gave the airplane the look of an angry hognose snake, a protuberance that seemed an add-on and if anything harked back to World War I observation airplanes with a freezing Frenchman standing upright in the bow. On early PBYs, in fact, the “turret” was indeed nothing more than a semi-open bombardier/observer’s post. Guns came later—ineffective single or twin .30s in the nose, single .50s in each waist blister and sometimes a .30-cal firing from a belly hatch near the tail.

this article first appeared in AVIATION HISTORY magazine

Today the PBY remains the best-known seaplane in the world. Until the last of them were recently retired, photos of Canso and Catalina waterbombers appeared regularly on the front pages of 21st-century newspapers, flying over forest fires in the U.S., Greece, Spain, France and elsewhere.

No flying boat or amphibian was ever produced in greater numbers than the two basic variants of the PBY. Between Consolidated, the Naval Aircraft Factory, Boeing Canada, Canadian Vickers and the Soviets, 1,452 wheelless boats were manufactured, plus 1,853 amphibs with retractable gear. Many sources give figures of 4,000-plus total, but PBY expert David Legg comes up with a combined production run of 3,305. (Legg runs The Catalina Society—catalina.org.uk— which operates a restored PBY-5A based at Duxford, England.)

It was a fortuitous combination of talents that made the PBY effective despite its painfully slow airspeed and relatively ineffective armament. The old P-boat was hell for stout, handled open-water landing and takeoffs with equanimity, would lift anything that could fit into it, could carry 2 tons of bombs or torpedoes and had butt-busting duration and loiter capability. Since the future of commercial flying boats and amphibs seems to stretch no farther than firefighting, we’ll surely never see its like again.

For further reading, frequent contributor Stephan Wilkinson recommends: PBY: The Catalina Flying Boat , by Roscoe Creed; Black Cats and Dumbos: WWII’s Fighting PBYs , by Mel Crocker; and Consolidated PBY Catalina: The Peacetime Record , by David Legg.

Originally published in the May 2013 issue of Aviation History Magazine . To subscribe, click here .

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Special operations outlook 2019 digital edition is here, the american who helped sink the bismarck.

By Dwight Jon Zimmerman - November 23, 2021

The Bismarck photographed from Prinz Eugen after the sinking of the HMS Hood. Bismarck seems to already be down by the bows somewhat from the HMS Prince of Wales’ hit forward below the waterline. An American aboard an American-built PBY Catalina flying boat was an instrumental part of the hunt for the German battleship. Bundesarchiv photo

The news that reached London on May 24, 1941, could not have been worse for the Admiralty. The German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen had sunk the battlecruiser HMS Hood , and damaged the new battleship Prince of Wales . That the Bismarck had been slightly damaged was cold comfort to a Royal Navy that had suffered its greatest defeat in living memory. British armed forces rallied every resource to avenge the loss, resources that included Ensign Leonard B. “Tuck” Smith of the U.S. Navy , who would have a pivotal role in the sinking of the Bismarck .

If Congress discovered he had also sent pilots to Britain, Roosevelt said, “I will be impeached.”

In 1940 Great Britain purchased 200 PBY Catalina seaplanes, whose long range and flight time made them ideal for anti-submarine patrols. The first batch of PBYs was delivered early in 1941, along with three pilots, one of them Ensign Smith, “on loan” from the U.S. Navy to help train the Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots. The sale of the Catalinas was public knowledge. U.S. Navy pilot help was not. Roosevelt had aroused isolationist ire in still-neutral America with Lend Lease and other aid to Britain. If Congress discovered he had also sent pilots to Britain, Roosevelt said, “I will be impeached.” So the pilots’ presence was a secret. Smith was assigned to the RAF’s 209 Squadron, part of Coastal Command and based in Loch Erne, Northern Ireland.

This is the Catalina of RAF Coastal Command No. 209 Squadron, flown by Ensign Leonard “Tuck” Smith, that spotted the Bismarck. Imperial War Museum photo

At the early morning briefing on May 26, 1941, Smith discovered the squadron’s mission that day was to find the Bismarck , which had eluded the ships and aircraft shadowing it. Normally for reconnaissance missions, the Catalinas’ anti-submarine loads of four depth charges were removed. But time was of the essence. The depth charges stayed on.

The weather was foul, with a ceiling as low as 100 feet when, at 0325, Smith’s PBY-5 No. AH545 lifted off the waters of Loch Erne and, along with the rest of the squadron’s Catalinas, headed west in search of the Bismarck . Officially RAF Pilot Officer Dennis Briggs was the pilot and Smith was the co-pilot.

In May of nineteen forty-one the war had just begun The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the seas On her deck were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees. —Johnny Horton “Sink the Bismarck” (1960)

Smith’s Catalina reached its assigned sector about six hours later and commenced searching. In his report of what happened next, Smith said, “[A]t 1010 I sighted what was first believed to be Bismarck . . . . I immediately took control from ‘George’ [the automatic pilot]; started slow climbing turn to starboard, keeping ship sited to port, while the British officer went aft to prepare [the] contact report. My plan was to take cover in the clouds, get close to the ship as possible; making definite recognition and then shadow the ship from best point of vantage. Upon reaching 2,000 feet we broke out of a cloud formation and were met by a terrific anti-aircraft barrage from our starboard quarter.”

Buffeted by anti-aircraft bursts that damaged the Catalina, Smith jettisoned the depth charges and conducted violent evasive action as additional contact information, including confirmation that the ship was the Bismarck , was transmitted. Smith and the crew later lost contact with the battleship, but their messages had been received. Air and surface forces converged on an intercept course. Smith’s Catalina landed 18 hours later, at 2130. The next morning the Bismarck was at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Survivors from the Bismarck are pulled aboard the HMS Dorsetshire, May 27, 1941. The morning after the Bismarck was spotted by a U.S. Navy pilot flying a RAF PBY Catalina, the Bismarck was on the bottom of the ocean. Imperial War Museum photo

Smith was interviewed about the mission by naval attaché Capt. Charles A. Lockwood, USN, who filed his report on June 9, 1941. The Navy awarded Smith the Distinguished Flying Cross for finding the Bismarck , though years would pass before he could explain why he received it. Smith’s career spanned four decades and three wars. He retired with the rank of captain and died in 2006 at the age of 90. “Charlie” Lockwood later became the Navy’s submarine fleet commander in the Pacific during World War II , rising to the rank of vice admiral. Inspired by the British movie about the event , in 1960 country music singer Johnny Horton recorded the song “Sink the Bismark ” (spelling subsequently corrected) which reached #3 on the Billboard charts for Country singles and #6 in Billboard ’s Hot 100 .

This story was originally published on May 8, 2011

By Dwight Jon Zimmerman

DWIGHT JON ZIMMERMAN is a bestselling and award-winning author, radio host, and president of the...

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Top 5: The Biggest Flying Boats Of All Time

Flying boats were popular in the early days of aviation for transatlantic travel, offering comfort and versatility with the ability to land on water.
The largest flying boats ever built include the Hughes H-4 Hercules with a wingspan of 321 feet and the Saunders-Roe Princess with innovative features but was ultimately canceled.
The Dornier Do X was the largest and heaviest flying boat in the world, but only three were produced, while the Sikorsky S-42 and Consolidated PBY Catalina were successful in their production and use.

Flying boats were unique kinds of seaplanes that stood out from other hydroplanes by virtue of having a built-in hull, as opposed to a traditional fuselage and attached pontoons. In the early days of aviation, between the First World War and the Second World War, flying boats became incredibly popular, especially for transatlantic travel.

The aircraft was extremely versatile, able to land pretty much anywhere that there was water, greatly limiting the operational barriers these machines needed to come over in order to launch a new service.

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From the passenger perspective, flying boats were an incredible improvement over the smaller, louder, and more cramped land-based planes. Flying boats had an incredible size, allowing for an unparalleled level of comfort. From a safety perspective, the flying boats, with the ability to land anywhere at any time over the Atlantic in the event of an emergency, were certainly able to reassure any queasy passengers.

But just how large did the scale of flying boats get? How large did these machines ultimately become at their peak, and how widespread was their operation? In this article, we will break down the five largest flying boats to ever take to the skies.

Hughes H-4 Hercules

Number produced: 1.

Perhaps the most iconic of all flying boats is the Hughes H-4 Hercules , commonly referred to as the Spruce Goose, which was a strategic airlift flying boat designed by the Hughes Aircraft Company. The flying boat was originally intended to transport troops across the Atlantic Ocean during World War II but was not completed until 1947, and as a result, the aircraft was never used during the war.

Pilot by a crew of three.
An incredible wingspan of nearly 321 feet (around 98 meters).
219 feet in length (67 meters), 80 feet tall.
The fuselage measured 30 feet in height.
Powered by eight Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial piston engines, each sporting a 17-foot tall Hamilton Standard four-bladed propeller.

The aircraft's only production prototype flew just once on 2 November 1947. Today, the Spruce Goose remains on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

Saunders-Roe Princess

The Saunders-Roe Princess was a flying boat built and developed by British aircraft manufacturer Saunder-Roe. The gargantuan aircraft holds the unique title of being the largest completely metal flying boat ever to take to the skies. The princess had originally been intended to serve as an alternative to ocean liners for the world's elite, ferrying passengers across the Atlantic in unparalleled comfort.

The aircraft was extremely innovative, taking advantage of the newly-released Bristol Proteus turboprop engines, a decision that may have doomed the program as delivery delays on these engines caused immense headaches for Saunders Roe.

Nonetheless, the plane took to the skies on 22 August 1952 and would complete a grand total of 47 test flights. Furthermore, the flying boat made two appearances at the Farnborough Airshow. Nonetheless, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), the precursor to modern British Airways, didn't order the Princess, ultimately leading the program to be canceled.

Dornier Do X

Number produced: 3.

This flying boat, which was introduced in 1929, was a major project of Claude Dornier, the leader of German manufacturer Dornier . When it first took to the skies on 12 July 1929, the Do X was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful airworthy machine in the world, with an incredible weight of 56 tons. The aircraft's construction was financed by the German Transport Ministry, but never garnered much attention from civilian operators, resulting in only three of the type ever being produced.

The Do X was an immensely complex aircraft and required a crew of at least ten in order to fly. The aircraft was over 130 feet (40 meters) long with a wingspan of nearly 156 feet (40 meters). The plane's fuel capacity was over 16,000 liters, and the flying boat's 12 Siemens Jupiter piston engines were placed on pylons mounted above the aircraft's main wing.

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Sikorsky S-42

Number built: 10.

The Sikorsky S-42, a long-range flying boat, first flew in 1934 and was primarily used by Pan American Airways. The flying boat, which was originally developed by Sikorsky Aircraft from the earlier S-40, flew passengers all the way up until the late 1940s.

In total, ten of these "clipper" aircraft, as they were dubbed by Pan Am , were ever built. The aircraft required a crew of four and could accommodate up to 37 passengers. These aircraft were powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet piston engines.

Consolidated PBY Catalina

Number built: 3,308.

This flying boat, which was originally designed as the Consolidated Model 28 , was later dubbed the Catalina by the US Navy and was mass-produced in both the United States and Canada. So successful was this aircraft that certain military variants remained in service in the Brazilian Air Force until 1982, and remains in use today as a waterbomber in aerial firefighting efforts.

This twin-engined aircraft first flew on 21 March 1935 and was one of the most common seaplanes used during the Second World War. A crew of eight was required to pilot the twin-engined aircraft, which featured a pair of Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp piston engines mounted over the main wings.

Top 5: The Biggest Flying Boats Of All Time

Crash of a Consolidated PBN-1 Catalina in Moscow: 2 killed

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This is the fully printable semi-scale model of a Consolidated PBY Catalina.

wingspan: 1.70m
length: 1.04m
weight empty: 1500g
weight equipped: 2600g
scale: 18:1

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Model origin

The author marked this model as their own original creation.

This work is licensed under a Standard Digital File License . Digital files have a strict non-commercial, personal use only license. You shall not share, sub-license, sell, rent, host, transfer, or distribute in any way the digital file or 3D printed versions of this object, nor any other derivative work of this object in its digital or physical format (including remixes of this object). You can not host these files on other digital platforms, web stores or cloud repositories. The objects may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees. ✖ | No sharing or redistributing in any way of the 3D files or derivatives ✖ | No remixing ✖ | Non-commercial Use (only for personal use)

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File : Moscow, former flying boat slipway on Khimki Reservoir (21060073008).jpg

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21 June 2018

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Items portrayed in this file, copyright status, copyrighted, copyright license, creative commons attribution 2.0 generic, coordinates of the point of view, 55°50'47.357"n, 37°27'35.258"e, 27 august 2015, captured with, source of file, file available on the internet.

2015 in Moscow
Khimki Reservoir
Yuzhnoye Tushino District
Files with coordinates missing SDC location of creation
Flickr images reviewed by FlickreviewR 2
Pages with maps

The Catalina Preservation Society

Canadian pby, the pby catalina history.

Recognizing the PBY Catalina Heritage Worldwide

Canadian Catalina History

A brief Canadian type history by Rickard, J

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 . Between then Boeing of Canada and Canadian Vickers produced 721 Catalina’s, many of which served in Canada as the Canso, with the RAF as the Catalina IVB or with the USAAF as the OA-10. Read More

Boeing Aircraft

Vancouver Sea Island Boeing plant B.C. Canada In 1939 Boeing of Canada, headquartered at Vancouver, B.C., built a huge manufacturing factory on Sea Island beside the middle arm of the Fraser River to build aircraft for the war effort. The Boeing Aircraft Company’s Sea Island, BC plant was well known during WW ll for building PBY Catalina Aircraft for off-shore air patrols and the mid section of the B-29. Boeing Aircraft of Canada built 362 PBY flying boats and amphibians designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego and 16 British-designed Blackburn Shark torpedo aircraft for the Royal Canadian Air Force. The RCAF called the PBY’s Canso’s. According to the book, Richmond Child of the Fraser, page 160; in 1939 the Sea Island Aircraft plant was the only plant in Canada to build the Catalina PBY Flying Boat. There was also an amphibious equivalent, the PBY-5A. Read More

IMAGES

The Consolidated PBY Catalina
PBY Catalina "The Flying Yacht"
Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat at Wings over Wairarapa 2019 : r
PBY Catalina Flying Boat
PBY Catalina "The Flying Yacht"
Catalina PBY-5a amphibious flying boat

VIDEO

PBY Catalina takeoff at Boeing Field for Seafair!
PBY Catalina in RAF service dropping depth charges at low level
Catalina 470 Sailing fast in Buzzards Bay
PBY Catalina: Flying boat and patrol bomber! #shorts
Flying in a 1943 PBY Catalina
Legendarne Samoloty PBY Catalina

COMMENTS

Consolidated PBY Catalina
The Consolidated Model 28, more commonly known as the PBY Catalina (US Navy designation), is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In US Army service it was designated the OA-10, in Canadian service as the Canso and it later got the NATO reporting name Mop. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II.
The Consolidated PBY Catalina
Here are seven amazing facts about the Catalina PBY, an aircraft that patrolled the vast reaches of the world's oceans, looking for an enemy to track, report, or destroy. A PBY prototype, circa 1935. (Image source: WikiMedia Commons) It entered service before WW2. The PBY line of flying boats was conceived in 1933 in Buffalo, New York.
Cat Tales: The story of World War II's PBY Flying Boat
A Patrol Bombing Squadron 52 (VPB-52) PBY-5 flying boat alongside a local outrigger canoe, during a rescue mission to the northwest end of McCluer Gulf in New Guinea, 13 August 1944. Women and ...
PBY Catalina History
Development. The plane that would become the PBY Catalina was designed by Consolidated Aircraft Corporation's lead designer, Isaac Machlin ("Mac") Laddon when, in 1933, the United States Navy, wary of Japan's growing influence in the Pacific Ocean, requested competing prototype designs for a flying boat with a range of 3,000 miles and a ...
To the Rescue: Consolidated PBY Catalina
On July 31, 1943, a Brazilian Catalina sank the German sub U-199 off Rio de Janeiro. On Aug. 2, 1945, a U.S. Navy PBY was the first vessel to rescue survivors of the torpedoed heavy cruiser Indianapolis. Through war's end the Allies built a total of 3,308 Catalinas—more than all other World War II-era flying boats combined.
Nathan Gordon, the Consolidated PBY Catalina, and a Medal of Honor
Large, slow flying boats like the Consolidated PBY Catalina, played vital roles for naval operations, including launching airborne attacks, anti-submarine patrols, delivering supplies, and performing air rescue. Although missions in these roles may not often be remembered, February 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of one of the most extraordinary flights of the PBY Catalina during World War II.
PBY Facts
The Catalina was the very last type of flying boat type operated by Qantas. Most importantly, through its Catalina flying boat operations across the Indian Ocean between 1943 and 1945 Qantas created, and still holds, a world air service duration record that has never been broken - and probably never will! In mid 1943, at a time when the war ...
Consolidated PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the most-built flying boat of World War II: 3281 were built in the USA and Canada, and several hundred in the USSR. (The Soviet version was known as GST, MP-7 or KM-2, depending on the engines.) The prototype had flown in 1935, so it was not a modern aircraft, and performance was modest.
Consolidated PBY Catalina
The PBY was the most produced and common flying boat of WW2, totalling 3,300 aircraft built, and was used for more roles for it was planned initially, mainly in anti-submarine warfare, but also as planned patrol bombing and convoy escort, but also search and rescue missions (SAR) and were nicknamed "Cat" on combat missions and "Dumbo ...
Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina was the U. S. Navy's most successful patrol flying boat of the war but naval aviators also used the PBY to attack ships at night, and to search for and rescue people stranded at sea. Following World War II, large seaplanes and flying boats suffered a mass extinction.
PDF The Consolidated Pby Canso/Catalina
The Consolidated PBY1 Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the U.S. military and in the air forces and navies of many other nations.
A P-Boat Comes Home: The Journey of Consolidated PBY-5A Bu. No. 2459
The PBY type aircraft accounted for 20 German U-Boats destroyed during the war. PBY Bu. No. 2459 uniquely accounted for three destroyed U-Boats and one damaged that never sailed again — it is the only USN multiple U-Boat killer aircraft known. It is also the oldest surviving PBY Catalina and has survived as a flying aircraft since the end of ...
WWII PBY Catalina Flying Boat Takes Flight
August 12, 2020 - A vintage World War II era Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat takes flight from the waters of Pearl Harbor in preparation for the 75th C...
PBY Specifications
Technical Data. Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina. All specifications are based on manufacturer's calculations. All performance figures are based on standard day, standard atmosphere, sea level, military gross weight conditions unless otherwise noted. Length: - 63 ft 10 in (19.46 m) Height: -.
Catalina Aircraft to relaunch iconic flying boat
The original Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibious flying boat first flew in 1936 and served 41 nations during World War Two across a variety of missions. An estimated 3,308 variants were built between 1936-1945 and the type was also used extensively by a variety of airlines. After supporting the continued airworthiness of 'legacy Catalinas ...
Cat Tales: Consolidated's PBY Flying Boat
Consolidated's rugged PBY set a standard for flying boats and amphibians that will never be eclipsed. by Stephan Wilkinson 10/2/2017. 1935 was a vintage year for first flights. It saw the arrival of three enormously capable, ahead-of-their-time airplanes that played a huge part in winning World War II: the Boeing B-17, Douglas DC-3/C-47 and ...
The American Who Helped Sink the Bismarck
An American aboard an American-built PBY Catalina flying boat was an instrumental part of the hunt for the German battleship. ... The morning after the Bismarck was spotted by a U.S. Navy pilot flying a RAF PBY Catalina, the Bismarck was on the bottom of the ocean. Imperial War Museum photo. Smith was interviewed about the mission by naval ...
Modernized Catalina Flying Boat Returns to the Skies
PBY-5A Catalina bomber on patrol over uninhabited Aleutian islands on a clear day. Bettman, Getty Images The Consolidated Aircraft Corp. Catalina PBY flying boat is an icon of the World War II era, but this ancient design may have new life when brand-new examples are built using modern turboprop powerplants and contemporary avionics.
Soaring by the Sea Foundation
Take a flying tour inside PBY 9767's hangar located in Euguene, Oregon and witness the restoration work of a World War II PBY 5A Catalina. More Videos. Soaring BY THE SEA FONDATION. ADDRESS: 29030 Hollis Lane Eugene, Oregon 97402. PHONE: 541-232-0758. EMAIL: [email protected].
Top 5: The Biggest Flying Boats Of All Time
The Dornier Do X was the largest and heaviest flying boat in the world, but only three were produced, while the Sikorsky S-42 and Consolidated PBY Catalina were successful in their production and use.
Crash of a Consolidated PBN-1 Catalina in Moscow: 2 killed
The seaplane was carrying one passenger and five crew members who were completing a post maintenance test flight. The crew was attempting to land in the Khimki Reservoir located northwest of Moscow when the aircraft hit the water surface, nosed down and overturned.
RC plane
RC plane - flying boat PBY Catalina . 0 reviews . 4. MK modeling @I_F_A_269693 Follow Following. Business account Fully printable RC modell of the Catalina flying boat. 167h 37m . 25× print file . 0.25 mm 0.20 mm . 0.40 mm 0.60 mm . PLA Special. 1929.00 g . Prusa MK3/S/S+. Your funds support the creator's further activity. $60.
File:Moscow, former flying boat slipway on Khimki Reservoir
File: Moscow, former flying boat slipway on Khimki Reservoir (21060073008).jpg
Canadian PBY
New Zealand Catalina History A brief New Zealand type history Under Lend-Lease provisions, in April 1943 the first of 22 PBY-5 flying boats were ferried by American crews from San Diego to Lauthala Bay in Fiji, where 6 (Flying Boat) Squadron (codes XX-x) commanded by Wing Commander G.C.Stead, with Squadron leaders R.B.L McGregor and A.V.Jury as ...
4 ship formation of MiG-29's flying over Moscow during aerial
1.2M subscribers in the aviation community. Anything related to aircraft, airplanes, aviation and flying. Helicopters & rotorcraft, airships…

MilitaryHistoryNow.com

The Consolidated PBY Catalina – Meet the Flying Boat that Helped the Allies Win WW2

“ It would serve in every maritime theatre of the war while performing an array of missions, from reconnaissance and search-and-rescue to sub-hunting and anti-shipping.”

It entered service before WW2

It was big and slow, but had amazing endurance

It was a true multitasker

Although lightly armed, it carried the latest technology

PBY crews worked round the clock

Catalinas flew for many Allied nations

The PBY’s Greatest Hits

Post-War Cats

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Consolidated PBY Catalina (1936)

The angel of the Atlantic

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From the XPBY-1 to the PBY-1

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The PBY in action

Maritime patrol

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The Black Cats of Guadalcanal

RAAF’s Catalinas

The angels of Mercy

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The British Commonwealth Catalina Mark I to Mark VI

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The World War II History of PBY-5A Catalina Bu. No. 2459

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