By Randy Malmstrom
Canadian Vickers PBV-1A “Canso A”/Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina, RCAF s/n 9815. This particular aircraft is a Canadian Vickers PBV-1A Canso A (a version of the PBY-5A of which 380 were built by Canadian Vickers Limited), but is painted as Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina “Land Cat,” BuNo 04982, piloted in early/mid-1942 by Ensign Jewell H. “Jack” Reid of Squadron 44 (VP-44), the “Golden Pelicans” – “VP” being the USN designation for “fixed wing patrol squadron” – but has hydraulically retracted tricycle landing gear of the 5A (VP-44 ended up flying both). It left Alameda Naval Air Station for Pearl Harbor in April 1942 and was based at Ford Island. On patrol on June 3, 1942, it was the PBY that located Admiral Tanaka’s Midway Occupation Force, which led to the Battle of Midway. Later in 1942, the aircraft was piloted by Ensign George W. Hamilton, and I have attached a photo of his logbook – one of the patrols was 13.5 hrs. (patrols could last as long as 30).
It was delivered to the Royal Canadian Air Force in June 1943 where it saw service until 1961. It saw service with the Protection Civile in Marseilles, France, and was later converted to a tanker. It is owned by the Michael King Smith Foundation and has been on static display at Evergreen Air & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon which had the aircraft ferried from Nanaimo, B.C. using borrowed engines which have been returned to the owner. Obviously, the interior has not been restored. My photos.
Named for Catalina Island and had such nicknames as “Cat” or “P-boat” or “Pig Boat” and “Canso” for aircraft built by Canadian Vickers Ltd., the air-sea rescue version commonly referred to as “Dumbo” and yet “Canso” was the common builder’s reference name. “PB” refers to “patrol bomber” and “Y” was the letter given to Consolidated Aircraft Corporation by the United States Navy Aircraft Designation System of 1922, and “V” for Canadian Vickers Ltd.
This flying boat/amphibious aircraft – with the introduction of retractable tricycle landing gear in the 5A model, as opposed to just beaching gear on some earlier versions – was initially developed by Consolidated Aircraft Corporation (established in 1923 and at the time located in Buffalo, New York) following its introduction of the XPY-1 prototype long-range flying patrol boat for the U.S. Navy in 1928. It was unable to make its maiden flight from the factory due to the fact that Lake Erie and the Niagara River were frozen over when it was completed, and had to be trucked south to the Potomac River. The Navy adopted a later model, and it became armed with machine guns, bombs, depth charges and/or torpedoes dropped from hardpoints on the wings. It was in use by the outbreak of World War II and was flown by as many as 29 armed services.
A PBY is credited with being the first U.S. aircraft to take action against the Japanese in World War II and against a midget submarine just outside the entrance to Pearl Harbor just as the air attack was about to commence. Over 4,000 were built by 1945, and it was responsible for more sea rescues than any other aircraft. Due to its varied use as patrol, reconnaissance, SAR (search and rescue), night patrol, anti-submarine patrol, and attack craft, and its extensive international use, the armament varied. The 5A versions were typically armed with one or two .30 or .50 caliber machine guns in the nose, fired by the bombardier (later versions had an “eyeball” type gun turret seen on the PBY-6.
The “Nomad” variant was built by the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, had PBN designations, and most were shipped overseas as part of the Lend-Lease program. Some aircraft were modified to have a “clipper” style bow without a turret, one .50 cal. machine gun in each of the port and starboard plexiglass hinged cupolas (with 956 rounds of ammunition for the two guns), and a .30 cal. machine gun in a rear-facing ventral port tunnel at the bottom of the hull. In addition, provisions were made to mount two blisters equipped with ball and socket mounts for a .30 cal. gun in the tunnel gun compartment. A 3/4-inch firing guard was attached to the inside of the hull just below each blister to prevent firing into the tail section (see B&W photo).
The wing could be fitted with Mark 51-7 internal bomb racks (for four bombs as large as 1,600 lbs.) and provisions for Mark 51-7 external bomb racks mounted in a torpedo rack (for torpedoes, depth charges or 100 lb. bombs), as well as four Mark 42 bomb racks (two under the wing on each side of the hull, and could carry three 100 lb. bombs, or twelve in all). Powerplant: a pair of Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engines. They were mounted on a parasol wing, which was on a central pylon that raised the engines in an effort to clear the propellers of some of the sea spray – the clearance from propeller blade to water surface was 8.5 ft. Unique among most other flying boats of the time were the retractable wingtip floats.
By the PBY-5 versions, the craft was an amphibious aircraft and was fitted with hydraulically actuated, retractable tricycle landing gear. The hull is divided into seven crew compartments divided by bulkheads, although as I recall, there are only five main watertight compartments fitted with watertight doors in the bulkheads: bomber/bow gunner’s compartment, cockpit compartment, navigation/radio compartment, flight mechanic’s compartment, living quarters compartment, waist gunner’s compartment, ventral (tunnel) gunner’s compartment. Crew sizes varied from 7-10, but the 5 version generally included: pilot, co-pilot, radio operator, navigator (behind the front bulkhead in back of the cockpit), flight mechanic (in the wing pylon with windows on either side and with his seat suspended from the wing above him giving him a good view of the engine nacelles and where any oil leakage or other engine issues are best seen); a bow turret gunner/bombardier in the nose, a port and starboard waist gunner in each of the cupolas; and a ventral (tunnel) rear-facing gunner.
For long patrols, the living compartment of the aircraft was fitted with a galley with an electric stove. If the bomb release mechanism failed on a regular basis, it was likely due to the battery voltage drain from the galley. In such cases, the stove was relegated to heating only soup and coffee (although I have seen photos of a propane stove in the waist of the aircraft, which, of course, averted this issue). Color schemes varied by service use, theater of operations, nationality, and included such schemes as U.S. Navy tri-color Non-Specular Blue, Insignia White, Sea Blue, Hull Blue, Hull Grey, Non-specular Sea Blue, and the “Black Cats” that flew night missions in the Pacific Theater.
Editor’s notes: According to the Canadian Aircraft Serials Personnel Information Resource (CASPIR), the Canso on display at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum was first assigned to No. 3 Training Command RCAF on June 2, 1943, and would go on to have several assignments with the RCAF through WWII and well into the 1950s. On August 22, 1946, Canso A 9815 was used to rescue the stranded crew of the Royal Canadian Air Force supply vessel Beaver (M.522), which had run aground on an uncharted reef off Cape Jones at the entrance to the James Bay two days earlier on August 20. The aircraft flew for several RCAF patrol squadrons before being flown to RCAF Station Lincoln Park, Alberta, on July 17, 1955, and declared to be in storage there by June 1957. On May 25, 1961, Canso A RCAF s/n 9815 was officially stricken from the RCAF inventory, and was sold to Frontier Air Transport of Calgary, Alberta and placed on the Canadian civil registry as CF-NJB and converted to become a pesticide sprayer and later as a water tanker for fighting forest fires.
By November 1966, the aircraft was later leased to the Protection Civile in France as F-ZBAR, then as F-ZBBC for use as a fire tanker. By 1974, the aircraft returned to Canada with the registration CF-NJG (later C-FNJF), where it was flown as a tanker in Saskatchewan. In January 1998, C-FNJG was converted from a tanker to a 12-passenger charter transport at Nanaimo, British Columbia, but remained derelict at Nanaimo Airport until it was sold to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, in 2010, and restored to airworthy condition for the ferry flight from Nanaimo to McMinnville with the FAA registration N249SB. Though the aircraft is now registered to Falls At McMinnville LLC in Salt Lake City, Utah, the aircraft, formerly displayed outdoors, is now on display in the same hangar as the Hughes H-4 Hercules, better known as the Spruce Goose.
About the author: 
Randy Malmstrom grew up in a family steeped in aviation culture. His father, Bob, was still a cadet in training with the USAAF at the end of WWII, but did serve in Germany during the U.S. occupation in the immediate post-war period, where he had the opportunity to fly in a wide variety of types which flew in WWII. After returning to the States, Bob became a multi-engine aircraft sales manager and, as such, flew a wide variety of aircraft; Randy frequently accompanied him on these flights. Furthermore, Randy’s cousin, Einar Axel Malmstrom, flew P-47 Thunderbolts with the 356th FG from RAF Martlesham Heath. He was commanding this unit at the time he was shot down over France on April 24th, 1944, spending the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. Following his repatriation at war’s end, Einar continued his military service, attaining the rank of Colonel. He was serving as Deputy Wing Commander of the 407th Strategic Fighter Wing at Great Falls AFB, MT, at the time of his death in a T-33 training accident on August 21, 1954. The base was renamed in his honor in October 1955 and continues to serve in the present USAF as home to the 341st Missile Wing. Randy’s innate interest in history in general, and aviation history in particular, plus his educational background and passion for WWII warbirds, led him down his current path of capturing detailed aircraft walk-around photos and in-depth airframe histories, recording a precise description of a particular aircraft in all aspects.
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Raised in Fullerton, California, Adam has earned a Bachelor's degree in History and is now pursuing a Master's in the same field. Fascinated by aviation history from a young age, he has visited numerous air museums across the United States, including the National Air and Space Museum and the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He volunteers at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino as a docent and researcher, gaining hands-on experience with aircraft maintenance. Known for his encyclopedic knowledge of aviation history, he is particularly interested in the stories of individual aircraft and their postwar journeys. Active in online aviation communities, he shares his work widely and seeks further opportunities in the field.
