QUIZ: What is the story on this PBY?

[WallyB]

Is the PBY in the hangar photo a different one than the burning PBY?
I think they are but I'm wondering what's it's ID might be.
Jerry

Yes, the hangared one is in much better shape than the hulk of CF-IHJ. No clues as to its identity, but possibly another S-D example ?

[rreis]

Is it just me, or does it look like it says "OBAMA" on the tail fin of the burning PBY?

It's just you .

I think it's the vestiges of a civil registration, Canada or possibly Chile. Can't quite make it out and the couple of guesses I made at it didn't turn up anything on the google.

Canadian I guess, by 1973 only one Chilean Catalina was in service, the other was stored and three more arrived in the country later.

At least two Chilean Catalinas served has fire fighters in Portugal in the late 90's early 2000's. One of them was sold to Australia having reached Aussie land in very adventurous conditions...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7mDj9bpc1M

[gary1954]

"Hanoi Jane" torched a PBY?!? What the heck is wrong with people?

Dan

gary1954 won't watch "anything" that has Jane Fonda in, or associated with the production of....to bad about the airframe, though, but if she wanted to touch me, I'd rather burst into flames.

[Jerry O'Neill]

to bad about the airframe, though, but if she wanted to touch me, I'd rather burst into flames.

[David Legg]

The opening shot of the burning photo definitely shows the fomer CF-IHJ as identified in a later post. I do not know the identity of the one in USAF markings shown in one of the subsequent photos but would like to if anyone can comment.

Going back to CF-IHJ, a small point is that in that opening photo of it burning, the rudder is an innacurately profiled unit put in place for the film. Its shape does not correspond to either the PBY-5/-5A or PBY-6A styles. By the time the airframe was used in the Steelyard Blues film, it had lost its original example (this is confirmed by looking at the Airliners.net photo mentioned above in another post).