The PBY Catalina was the US Navy designation for an American and Canadian-built flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s. PB stands for Patrol Bomber, with Y being Consolidated's manufacturer identification. It could be equipped with depth charges, bombs, torpedoes, and .50 caliber machine guns and was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. Catalinas served with every branch of the US military and in the air forces and navies of many other nations.

In World War II, PBYs were used as anti-submarine warfare aircraft, patrol bombers, convoy escorts, search and rescue aircraft, and transports. The Catalina can be considered the most successful aircraft of its kind, as no other flying boat was produced in greater numbers. The last active military Catalinas were not retired from service until the 1980s. Even today, over seventy years after its first flight, the aircraft continues to fly as an airtanker in aerial firefighting operations all over the world.

The Catalina was originally designed to be a patrol bomber, an aircraft with a long operational range intended to locate and attack enemy transport ships at sea in order to compromise enemy supply lines. With a mind to a potential conflict in the Pacific Ocean, where troops would require resupply over great distances, the US Navy in the 1930s invested millions of dollars in developing long-range flying boats for this purpose. Flying boats had the advantage of not requiring runways to take off and land, in effect having the entire ocean available as its runway. Several different flying boats were adopted by the Navy, but the PBY Catalina was the most widely used and produced.

Although slow and ungainly, Catalinas distinguished themselves in World War II as exceptionally reliable aircraft. Allied armed forces used them successfully in a wide variety of roles that the aircraft was never intended for. They are remembered most by veterans of the war for their role as rescuing aircraft, where they saved the lives of thousands of aircrewmen shot down over the Pacific Ocean.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a USAAC Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A flying boat that was based at Oahu, Hawaii, at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 17-1/4-inches
Length: 10-3/4-inches

Release Date: April 2022

With a strong force of Mitsubishi Zero fighters retained to protect the task force from air attack, pilots performing this role knew that if a Catalina strayed too close, they would only have seconds to destroy the aircraft, before it could relay details of its discovery to naval headquarters, where a coordinated attack could immediately be launched. As it was, a US Navy Catalina did detect the Japanese raid prior to the first bomb falling, but that of a midget submarine approaching the entrance of the harbor. Immediately launching an attack on the vessel and reporting their discovery to headquarters via coded message, the main attack had already started before military officials had time to plan their response.