TXCOMT wrote:
And meaning no disrespect to those who served on those incredible flights, that was then and this is now...427CV's crossing is still astounding when you consider the age of the plane. Plus, who else has flown a warbird for that length of time and over open water lately? I certainly wouldn't have the guts, mainly 'cause I don't like to swim!
I reluctantly question the 30-hour-plus flights, though, mainly based on this excerpt from this story
http://www.pilotspost.co.za/arn0000205:
"With a fuel capacity of over 6,000 liters the endurance of the PBY is nearly 20 hours at lower power settings."
Did the Double Sunrise birds get extra tanks somewhere or just really pilotage and tailwinds? TXCOMT
TXCOMT - various Catalinas have flown long distances on ferry flights in recent years. For example, G-PBYA (then C-FNJF) was flown St Johns, Newfoundland - Shannon as part of its delivery from Nanaimo, BC to Duxford a few years back and that was around 14 hours over water. It is still routinely flown long distances and I was on board for Reykjavik - Oslo a few months ago of which nearly seven hours was over the North Atlantic. Of course, wartime crews would have considered that a picnic as they would often fly operational missions that were the equivalent distance/duration of Reyjavik - Oslo - Reykjavik - Oslo without landing/refuelling. An amazing aircraft.
Despite your quote, the
Double Sunrise Catalina flights were in excess of 30 hours unrefulled on a number of occasions but the airframes were non-standard, having been lightened by the deletion of non-essential equipment and then equipped with eight auxilliary tanks in the hull that supplemented the standard wing tanks. The longest crossing was 32 hours 9 minutes on August 30th 1943.
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