Black Cats

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Alpo]

I kept talking about those antique aeroplanes. I figured they were 20 or more years old by the way they were going on.

 

And then they say that one was four years old.

[Trailrider #896]

Black Cats prowl at night!  "Main fleet!" (Midway)  Wrong background music. Should be something from Victory At Sea!

Edited December 13, 2024 by Trailrider #896

[Sedalia Dave]

14 hours ago, Alpo said:

I kept talking about those antique aeroplanes. I figured they were 20 or more years old by the way they were going on.

 

And then they say that one was four years old.

 

Given the op tempo and the number of hours flown per sortie a 4 year old airframe would have been considered very old during WWII.

[Eyesa Horg]

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

Given the op tempo and the number of hours flown per sortie a 4 year old airframe would have been considered very old during WWII.

They just made it sound like it was a wood and fabric biplane.

 

"These antiques ..."

[Chantry]

Not bad for a plane that was considered obsolescent when WWII started and that went on perform the following roles and did it well:  night interdiction, bomber, air-sea rescue, long range patrol, anti-submarine patrols, insertion and pickup of agents & military personnel, cargo runs, evacuation of injured, high priority delivery of mail and  probably some others I forgot.  It was a docile, easy airplane to fly and generally well liked by it's crews.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_PBY_Catalina

 

And a company is planning on building new ones: https://catalinaaircrafttrust.com/ngaa-home

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

I had an uncle who'd been a PBY Flight Engineer in the Coast Guard.  He loved the old bird, despite her faults - "noise, drafty, leaky, and slow!"

 

He told the story of taking one from Alameda to Oahu on a flight that took over 25 hours.  He had a buddy who left Alameda five hours later, but arrived at the same destination almost eight hours earlier in an R5D.