The Catalina will fly again (PBY Catalina and soon Catalina II) - YouTube
Posted by SuccessionWarFan@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 27 comments
"With over 71% of the Earth covered in water, you would think seaplanes would be more common."
ComfortFun6426@reddit
Construction will be composite, it says. That means complete redesign of the airframe. Why not designing a more aerodynamic advanced shape? Whic is of course equivalent to a new airplane.
Gizombo@reddit
Because the whole point is to retain the iconic shape of the catalina
quietflyr@reddit
Then the whole point is useless.
Nobody wants a plane that slow and that impractical for cargo and passengers.
natso2001@reddit
We will soon find out as if it's not financially viable it won't get built. Weren't Catalinas used widely for firefighting? If you can get some private sales and govt contracts for fire-fighters, perhaps some charter planes or island hoppers, seems fine to me.
redhornet919@reddit
Hate to rain on your parade but I don’t think you’ve thought about why they were used as firefighting planes. They were only used for firefighting because they were cheap, available, and could do the job. B24 liberators were also used extensively in firefighting for the same reasons. If someone was making a liberator 2.0 there’s no good reason to use them for that. There are just better newer airframes and building them from scratch means you don’t even get the cost savings. At that point the chance that the Canadians get CL-515 up and running is a much better bet. It’s just a more capable airframe with a significantly more recent production run.
As for charters, that never going to be practical because it’s cheaper, more efficient, and less training for the pilots to run single engine planes. Most are going to use airstrips regardless but even for those that could benefit from the water landing in remote locations, single engine float planes would be preferable.
Edit: soooooo I looked at the website. This shit reads as vaporware to me. These mfs are out here suggesting their PBY remake could be used for ASW and Carrier On-board Delivery. They’re just making shit up. Looks like they’ve been in the business of aftermarket maintenance of PBYs since the early 2010s. That doesn’t give them any credibility to actually build a new airframe from the ground up and it certainly doesn’t give them the ability to carrier rate it for COD missions. It’s quite frankly a baffling amount of hubris.
Don138@reddit
Regarding the vaporware; it’s a pitch. If they could get any government or military to order a few, even if just for trials, it could make the whole venture financially viable.
There aren’t a whole ton of sea planes in production, especially those beyond the recreational/puddle jumping world. It’s basically the DHC-515 (which is almost exclusively designed for firefighting), and the Japanese US-2. The US-2 being the only real option for long range reconnaissance, SAR, ASW, etc.
With the nonsense in the Straight of Hormuz, rising tensions with China/Taiwan, the 9-dash line, and the importance of the Straight of Malacca control over the sea is more important than ever.
I’m not saying we are going to see the US Navy operating scores of Catalina’s again, we have P-8s, RC-135s, carrier based aircraft and airbases all around the world.
But if the company could convince some of the smaller players in those regions (Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, etc) that a $10, 15, 20m airframe could fit in their budget, where the $160m US-2 or $250m P-8 couldn’t, and increase their capability in long range operations over the seas. It could be financially viable.
Do I think it’s likely to happen? Probably not, they have been talking about this for years, but I am trying to imagine their thought process.
quietflyr@reddit
Yes they were used for firefighting, because they were plentiful and cheap after WWII.
A new production airframe isn't going to be either plentiful or cheap.
But we now have much better firefighting aircraft, so the Catalina is obsolete in that role, and hence not doing firefighting anymore.
There is certainly a nostalgia aspect to doing short passenger routes in these, but again, there are much better options now from a business standpoint, like the Twin Otter, and they're going to be much cheaper to buy and operate.
And frankly, this thing is likely to cost on the order of $10-15 million a piece new, so there aren't going to be many private customers.
natso2001@reddit
I'm certainly not disagreeing, just laying out how I can see it being viable if at all.
quietflyr@reddit
... And I'm laying out how every way you think it could be viable is wrong.
natso2001@reddit
While being a bit of a dick! Well done!
SpruceGoose__@reddit
Than you can just buy the ShinMaywa US-2, it is modern and already operational
wildskipper@reddit
That would only appeal to people with the spare change to buy one. Militaries, airlines etc won't care about that.
flyingscotsman12@reddit
Does this do anything that the Dornier Seastar wouldn't have done? Because that has already been mostly shelved due to lack of interest it seems.
Diavolodentro@reddit
There was one at the mid atlantics air museums ww2 weekend by my house a few years ago. It’s amazing how big that plane is. I never thought it was.
BobbyBoogarBreath@reddit
I will believe it when I see it.
snoogins355@reddit
Hopefully a wild fire version will be made made. Those super scuppers are amazing. Different plane but similar characteristics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-415
quietflyr@reddit
There is no firefighting role a Catalina could do that can't be done better by a CL-515, for which a production line is already being spooled up with deliveries to start in the next few years.
snoogins355@reddit
Very good to hear that! They need fleets of those!
Not_Henry_Winkler@reddit
I'm waiting for the release of the camper conversion
quietflyr@reddit
Never going to happen. There isn't a role for a 125 mph cargo/passenger seaplane in the modern world.
redhornet919@reddit
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted (actually I do, PBY go brrrrrr or something). You’re correct but not even because there’s no place for them. To lay this out, a company that has never made an airframe before, that can’t get the godaddy logo off their website, and doesn’t publicly disclose who is behind it (despite claiming 350 years of combined experience blah blah blah) is claiming to be able to build a new airframe from scratch that can do everything from piracy interdiction to COD missions (which means carrier rating it). AndI can’t emphasize this enough: THEIR CLAIMING A NEWLY DESIGNED TURBOPROP FOR ALL THIS. Nevermind never building an airframe, these little shits think they can design a new fucking jet engine. The only logical conclusion is that it’s never getting off the page.
earl_of_lemonparty@reddit
Not sure why you're getting so much hate, you make a valid point. I desperately want to see it fly but not sure if the market is really there.
quietflyr@reddit
Yup. There's simply no market.
If you wanted to make a seaplane that could go 300-400 knots, have a large regular-shaped cargo bay that could carry NATO standard pallets, with a nose door for loading and unloading and so forth, there would be a market. But the Catalina is simply too slow and too impractical for any role.
Forte69@reddit
There are still airworthy OG Catalinas so the title is misleading.
DukeBradford2@reddit
My all time favorite plane. Now I just need to win the lottery so I can take one out to less crowded dove sites and still be back in town by lunch. I wonder how they are going to get more top speed but still retain a landing/ t/o speed slow enough to be safe on water. Redesign the wing for more speed usually means less lift at slow speeds.
NedTaggart@reddit
I love this. I hope this actually happens. I am only seeing renders though.
R-Cursedcomentes@reddit
Nice video. And I cannot wait for the Catalina ii; I’ve always wanted a PBY-5 for house boating, now I might be able when these goes up for sale