Tunison Foundation Shelves PBY Restoration Project, Seeks Buyer

The Tunison Foundation, the leading New York-based flying museum known for D-Day veteran C-47 Placid Lassie and her three trips to Europe at milestone anniversaries, has announced they are shelving and seeking a buyer for their PBY Catalina restoration project.

Consolidated Vultee PBY-5A Catalina BuNo. 48423, most recently registered as N423RS, was built at Consolidated’s San Diego plant in 1943, served with Patrol Bomber Squadron 73 out of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, N.Y. and San Juan, P.R. from 1944 to 1946, and later worked as a geo-survey aircraft in Canada for decades. Making a trip across the pond for then-owner Greenpeace in the 1990s, she was eventually in need of restoration and last flew in 2009 on a ferry flight within the United Kingdom. New York-based British businessman James Lyle, then also the owner of C-47 Placid Lassie, commissioned restoration efforts in the U.K. from 2008 to 2015, before relocating the aircraft to Fort Pierce, FL for storage pending further restoration. In 2017, the aircraft was donated to the Tunison Foundation, which began to pursue the Catalina’s restoration in earnest following their establishment of an operational base at Hudson Valley Regional Airport (POU) in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. in late 2022.

The first step of restoration to airworthiness was the repair of the PBY’s center section, comprising a wing section, center pylon, engine nacelles and mounts, oil tanks, fuel cells, and sponson gearboxes, in a massively complex structural job. The Foundation hired Warbird Aero Restorations of Pearland, TX, headed up by well-known warbird pilot Lt. Col. Charles “Tuna” Hainline, USAF (Ret.), to accomplish this, which stands roughly 60% complete at the time of shelving, at a restoration expense of nearly $200,000. Additionally, the Foundation hired a restoration manager to oversee the in-house overhaul of the fuselage and wings, along with the outsourcing of engine overhauls, landing gear overhauls, and more, and began to pursue fundraising efforts for the restoration of the PBY, which would join a small class of about a dozen airworthy Catalinas worldwide. However, setbacks in the project led the Tunison Foundation restoration, operations, and development teams to reassess the viability of the project, which coincided with a growing international touring program for C-47 Placid Lassie and weaker economic conditions. As a result, the Foundation’s Board of Directors voted on July 10th, 2024 to shelve the project and pursue its sale as-is, with the intention of remaining focused on C-47 operations and historic education.

The sale of the project and parts stock, judged to be one of the largest PBY parts stocks in the world, is being handled by Goodspeed Flying Service and is available for sale immediately, listed at $250,000. While the Foundation team is disappointed not to be able to return another PBY to the skies, it’s clear that these steps will allow the group to maintain its strategic focus and keep C-47 Placid Lassie flying and touring around the world for many years to come. Tunison Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit and a New York-based flying museum that seeks to preserve and publicize the memory, service, and sacrifice of lesser-known military veterans, through the operation of historic World War II aircraft, including the D-Day veteran C-47 Placid Lassie. For more information about the Tunison Foundation, visit www.tunisonfoundation.org