PBY in rescue drill, Long Beach 1965 - ID?

[Chris Brame]

While digging through online photo archives, I found this shot from June 7, 1965 of a PBY at Long Beach, CA being used for a rescue drill:

(source: CSUDH Archives)
Looks like it's either in the process of being repaired or stripped for parts; note the hatch replacing the bubble turret. Any of our PBY gurus know which one this is?

Enlargeable image here: https://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/dig ... en/id/2254

Bonus trivia: Check out the extreme left of the shot; that's the wing, boom and landing gear of C-82 N53228 propped up. There's no fuselage, so the rest of it must have been in use for The Flight of the Phoenix at that time.

[Warbirdnerd]

Goodall notes these 6 PBYs either registered to or spotted at Long Beach in 1965.
PBY-5A Bu48371
PBY-5A Bu48402
PBY-5A Bu46575
PBY-5A Bu46591
PBY-5A Bu46629
PBY-6A Bu46649

[David Legg]

Thanks for posting that photo. Whilst all the PBY-5As listed above by Warbirdnerd were at Long Beach at around the time the photo was taken, for various reasons I do not think the one in the photo is any of them. Looking through my archives I'd place my bet on it being N68623. This was the former PBY-5A BuNo 48281/N1540M and CF-IHJ. This ended up with Carstedt Research Corp Inc at Long Beach from around 1964 and became a stripped and semi-derelict hulk. Its outward appearance in photos I have match the one on this forum. It went to Tallmantz Aviation Inc, probably via Steward-Davis, then to Steelyard Blues Productions Inc and was destroyed in the filming of the Steelyard Blues film in the very early-70s.

[Warbirdnerd]

Thanks David.
I would have included that one too, but Goodall only shows it at Long Beach from 67-70.

[aerovin]

This was the former PBY-5A BuNo 48281/N1540M and CF-IHJ. This ended up with Carstedt Research Corp Inc at Long Beach from around 1964 and became a stripped and semi-derelict hulk. Its outward appearance in photos I have match the one on this forum. It went to Tallmantz Aviation Inc, probably via Steward-Davis, then to Steelyard Blues Productions Inc and was destroyed in the filming of the Steelyard Blues film in the very early-70s.

David, would you have dates and/or details of its acquisition by Tallmantz and then to Steelyard Blues? I suspect the film makers contacted Tallmantz to get them a PBY and Tallmantz owned it only long enough to sell it to the production company. I presume there were no registration transfers filed with the FAA? Is there an aircraft disposition document in the FAA registration file? I would like to add this information to my Tallmantz pages at aerovintage.com. Thanks.

[David Legg]

Hi Scott - this is what I have from FAA files ....

....to Carstedt Research Corporation Inc, Long Beach, CA 05May64; reported as a stripped and derelict hulk at Steward-Davis Inc, Long Beach, CA by 1967; to Tallmantz Aviation Inc, Santa Ana, CA 06May71 quoting reg N68623 but no CofR issued; to Steelyard Blues Productions Inc, Hollywood, CA 10May71 and used in filming of Steelyard Blues; letter from Warner Bros, Burbank, CA to FAA confirming aircraft totally destroyed in filming and no CofR required; canx from USCAR as “Dismantled or salvaged” 29Mar75.

In the lead photo to this thread, no registration is visible but I have a slightly later photo where the registration N68623 has been roughly daubed on the hull just aft of the rear wing lift strut and forward of the rear access hatch. It's certainly the same aircraft

Hope that helps a little.

[Stoney]

Steward-Davis had 4 or 5 hulls behind their building at LGB in 68' and some were used in Pearl harbor, they also converted a lot of harvards for that movie. i lived in seal beach at the time and hung out at LGB a lot. its was before i was off to Mexico for Catch 22.

[David Legg]

Steward-Davis had 4 or 5 hulls behind their building at LGB in 68' and some were used in Pearl harbor, they also converted a lot of harvards for that movie. i lived in seal beach at the time and hung out at LGB a lot. its was before i was off to Mexico for Catch 22.

Stoney - these were quite probably the ones that Steward-Davis had acquired from the larger PBY-5A collection assembled by Thomas Kendall in the -50s and which appear in Warbirdnerd's list above (excluding the last one). They ended up at Long Beach. Another one of Kendall's former aircraft was used as a support aircraft for the original Catch-22.

[Stoney]

Don Hackett had his PBY at the movie site and I flew in it, we made a water landing and shortly there after the movie people made him take it home to AZ. Could have used it when the cameraman fell out of the B-25 from 4000' into the bay, but that's another story.

[bdk]

I spy an A-26 and a T-28. Center section wing/nacelle of something else too. Never heard of this movie!

[Craig59]

I watched the trailer on Amazon and spied the remains of an F7F fuselage which is likely N7627C (BuNo80410). According to the registry it crashed with Cal-Nat in 1962 and the remains acquired by Sis-Q in the 1969-72 timeframe and moved to Santa Rosa. IMDB lists Santa Rosa as a location for the film so...

...was the PBY cut-up for interior shots of the “operative” PBY used in the film or are they one and the same?

[aerovin]

David, thanks for that information about the Tallmantz connection.

More information about airplanes seen in Steelyard Blues is found here...a good resource: http://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=Steelyard_Blues

I suspect the airplane at Long Beach ended up being used for studio shots.

[Joe Scheil]

A-26 is the Lloyd Hamilton soon to racer N500R....44-34769

Had no idea that Tigercat was so abused!