Catalina - the flying yacht

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'…The aircraft is a Catalina PBY-5A model and was bought from the US Navy by Thomas W Kendall, a retired businessman who converted it to a luxury flying yacht. In the spring of 1960 Mr Kendall took a pleasure trip around the world with his wife and children together with his secretary and her son. A photographer joined the group to cover part of the trip for life magazine…'

http://www.retronaut.co/2011/11/a-day-on-a-flying-...






I think that's cooler than the £1M luxury yacht thread

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Crossflow Kid said:

Shot to bits by trigger happy Arabs.....nothing ever changes.

I was thinking the same.



Probably enough plot there to make a film...

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Fishtigua said:

Jimmy Buffett, the Parrot-head singer, had one as a 'yacht'. Well his uncle is Warren Buffett, the billionair.

Ha yes, he could start and airline and call it BillionAir

[Simpo Two]

So what would our a/c - Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, Mosquito etc look like with US-style names?

I suppose a Spitfire would be P-something-S (for Supermarine)...?

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It's a great pity the link I started this thread with no longer works and the photos have gone. That's the danger of the internet - lots of amazing/valuable info there one day - pfft, gone the next. Cloud or no Cloud, it doesn't bode well I think for the long term archival of important things.

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A pity they couldn't give the brown fellows some return fire.

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Things may be changing now that shale oil/gas is coming onstream. The Arabs have had it too cushy for too long.

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Huntsman said:

What would it cost to buy a Catalina now?

I believe a PHer owns part of one - perhaps you could buy another part of it?

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Albatros downed by a Catalina? Was the Albatros flown by a vegetarian civil servant?

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Yep, I know it's fiction but even fiction has to be believeable... it was nice of the Albatros pilot to fly straight and level and let the other guy shoot him down with a rifle

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ChemicalChaos said:

What's unbelievable? Just the fact he manages to Macgyver his way out of tricky situations all the time?

So if you were flying an Albatros fighter and a Catalina came up alongside you and started firing at you you'd just go 'der' and wave at it whilst being careful to fly straight and level so they can shoot you?

Please yourself but I'd turn the fk out of there using my far better manoeuverability. The Cat's side blisters give a very good view/field of fire but I have two relatively steady forward-firing machine guns and he has one wobbly rifle, so I'd aim to kill him first then settle down to pick off the engines. Or if there's no front gun, aim for the pilot and let gravity do the rest. Then home for tea and medals, hurrah!

[Simpo Two]

Are we talking about the right kind of Albatros/s?

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That's what I thought; it was jpringle who introduced the Grumman version.