military-aircraft-pby-5a

The Consolidated Model 28 was conceived as a flying boat offering greater range and payload than the same company's P2Y and Martin's P3M in service with the US Navy during the early 1930's The First XP3Y-1 prototype flew in March 1935 and was developed into the PBY series with stabilizer floats that retracted to create wing tips. The definitive flying boat was the PBY-5 and an amphibian version was produced as the PBY-5A to improve the type's versatility. The landing gear was proved on the PBY4 conversion, the XPBY-5 that flew in November 1939. This was one of the most important maritime aircraft of the Second World War and remained in service with some air forces into the mid 1980's.

Description	Specifications
Manufacturer: Consolidated	Length: 63 ft. 5 in.
First Flight: November 1939	Height: 20 ft. 20 in.
Model: A	Wing Span: 104 ft. 8 in.
Crew: Nine	Wing Area: 1,400.0sq. ft.
Nickname: Catalina	Empty Weight: 20,910 lb.
Basic Role : Maritime patrol bomber amphibian flying boat.	Max. Weight: 35,420 lb.
Other Versions: PBY-5A the initial amphibian version, Royal Air Force as the Catalina Mk IIIs, the USAAF as OA-10s. PBY-6A the Consolidated built version of the PBN-1, the USAAF as the OA-10Bs. PBn-1 Normad a PBY-5A derivative by the Naval Aircraft Factory with greater fuel capacity, higher weights and a taller tail. PBV-1A the PBY-5A version built by Canadian Vickers and Canso the PBY-5A version built by Canadian Boeing And Canadian Vickers.	Armament: Two 0.5-in 12.7-mm and three 0.3-in 7.62-mm machine guns in trainable bow, ventral and waist positions, and up to 4,000 lb of bombs.
Principal User: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, and USA.	Propulsion
Performance	Power Plant: Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp radial piston engines.
Range: 2,545 miles.	Horsepower: 1,200-hp.
Max. Speed: 179 mph.	No. Of Engines: Two
Ceiling: 14,700 ft.
Climb Rate: 620 ft. per minute.