Warbird Information Exchange

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if anyone knows of PBY's built at Boeing Canada's plant at Sea Island (Vancouver/Richmond, BC)?

From what I understand there were quite a fair amount of Cansos/Catalinas built in Vancouver and some of them even went into US military service. I never really hear of Vancouver built survivors; does anyone know of any?

Cheers,

David

wouldn't the only survivor be the PB2B-2 "Frigate Bird" VH-ASA in NSW?

Thats a tall tail flying boat, and a historic survivor...aren't they all?

Hi,

Some information about a Cat:

C-FCRR was build as c/n 21996 by Boeing of Canada and later became Canso ‘S’ 9767, 162 sqn RCAF on March 4, 1943. Allocated to Squadron 162 in Reykjavik, in 1944 piloted by FO T.C. Cooke ‘S’ sank a German U-boat off the south-west coast of Iceland on April 17. The U-boat, U 342, was on its first patrol, leaving Bergen on 3 April. Thomas Charles Cooke and Eric Walter Wiskin both received an Immediate DFC.

The amphibian was removed from the military service two years later, on April 1st, 1946. Registered CF-CRR, it then passed from 1950 till 1959 in the hands of Canadian Pacific Airlines in Vancouver, then Northland Airlines Ltd. in Winnipeg in 1960, and Midwest Airlines Ltd, in the same place in 1970. The civil registration was changed to C-FCRR in the name of Avalon Aviation Ltd, who used it as water bomber in Red Deer and Pary Sound, up to its retirement.

Franklin Devaux bought her in 1994 and converted her to a flying television studio. Since 1995, the aircraft is the property of "Canadian Air Legend", its exploitation being entrusted to the Air Inc. company, of Oshawa, Toronto. During 1996 C-FCRR was the star of monthly French television programme Operation Okavango. In 1998 this airplane was renamed "Princesse des Etoiles" and she was the eye catcher of the 3 week Place de la Concorde / Champs-Elysees static airshow after which C-FCRR flew from Toulouse to Santiago Chile, on the steps of french "Aéropostale".



Serial #: RCAF 9767
Construction #: 21996
Civil Registry: CF-CRR, C-FCRR
Model(s): PBY-5A (Canso A)
Name: Princesse des Etoiles
Status: Airworthy

History:
Built by Boeing of Canada, Vancouver, BC.

Delivered to RCAF as RCAF 9767.
- BOC: Mar. 4, 1943.
- SOC: Apr. 1, 1946.
- Allocated to 162 Squadron, March 1943.
- Sank U-342, Apr. 17, 1944 (Pilot: F/O T.C. Cooke).

Canadian Pacific Airlines, Vancouver, BC, Apr. 1, 1946-1960.
Registered as CF-CRR.
- Damaged during landing, nose wheel retracted, Torrence, BC, 04/23/59.

Northland Airlines Lt, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1960-1968.

Midwest Airlines Lt, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1969-1970.

Ilford Riverton Airways, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1973.

Avalon Aviation Ltd, Red Deer, Alberta, 1977-1979.
Registered as C-FCRR.
- Flew as tanker #1 (later #791).

Avalon Aviation Ltd, Parry Sound, Ontario, 1979-1989.
- Damaged during water pick-up, Complex Lake, Sask, 05/27/78 (Apparently the water scoop retracted improperly and too much water was taken aboard causing the A/C to stall on liftoff. The right wing impacted the water and was partially torn away. The A/C waterlooped and the nose gear door failed and the A/C begain to take on water, the A/C was immediately beached).
- Sank after crashing during water pick-up, Complex Lake, Sask, 05/30/81.
- Salvaged and returned to service.
- Retired Parry Sound, Ontario, Feb. 28, 1988-1992.

Powell Corp, Parry Sound, Ontario, Feb. 21, 1995.

Ontario Ltd / Canadian Air Legend, Parry Sound, Ontario, 1995.

Ontario Ltd / Canadian Air Legend, France, Apr. 1995-2004.
- Operated by Enterprise Air Inc, Oshawa, Ontario.
- Used in monthly French TV wildlife show "Operation Okavango", Africa.
- Flew re-enactment flight France to Chile, Oct. 98, as "Princesse des Etoiles".
- Continued to Brazil, Canada, returned to France via Shannon, 06/12/99.
- Based at Orly Airport, Paris, France.

Pic during the work for fight condition start on august 2006 and finish soon:


SPang

when I find time I will post pics of this bird while at Parry Sound... taken 1988....

Martin

_________________
Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

That's fantastic to hear there is a Boeing Canada survivor. I live 15 minutes away from where they were all built. Nothing remains of the factories, but I image there are still many people in Vancouver that were in some way, involved in building that plane.

Thanks for all the responses,

David

Hi David,

Actually one of the Boeing hangars are still there, here’s some info off the City of Richmond website.

http://www.richmond.ca/asp/HeritageInv/details.asp?ID=8

and a Google Maps view of the hangar.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge ... =addr&om=1

Good topic though, it would be interesting to see which PBY’s built in Vancouver still exist.

Also I’ve posted this before, but here’s some info on Boeing at Sea Island. http://seaisland1.homestead.com/Boeing.html

All the best,

Brian

Hey Brian,

I haven't seen you on here for a while. Or maybe I'm just missed your posts. In any case, thank you for that link. I didn't realise that hangar was one of the old Boeing hangars. I drive by that quite often going to the Flying Beaver and whatnot. (For everyone else, the Flying Beaver is a restaurant/bar that overlooks the Fraser River where DHC-2 Beavers and other floatplanes operate off of).

Anyways, thanks again for the info. I'd love to try and acquire a Boeing Vancouver built PBY for the Canadian Museum of Flight but I'm affraid there aren't many left, so it seems.

I'm working on acquiring the one in Nanaimo though, CV built.

Cheers,

David

Daveymac-

I'm pretty sure the blue building which now houses Lindair was once part of the Boeing complex. They still have alot of the hoists and stuff in the rafters for building sub-assemblies.

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real airplanes have round engines