NGAA Catalina 2 (PBY)
Posted by FactThin7186@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 53 comments
Found this and thought it would fit here any thoughts on what other WW2 planes could get revived?
Posted by FactThin7186@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 53 comments
Found this and thought it would fit here any thoughts on what other WW2 planes could get revived?
strat-fan89@reddit
Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on this one. This could well be another one of those projects that gets cancelled three years in, because everything is a lot more complicated and expensive as previously thought, investors don't see progress and pull out, etc.
Don't get me wrong, it sounds super cool, but I will be pleasantly surprised if they manage to complete even one plane.
PineCone227@reddit
Looks like your comment didn't age that well!
Now to see how many are actually made.
strat-fan89@reddit
Why didn't it age well? Did they actually build one? I can't find anything on it...
PineCone227@reddit
Production officially began recently and orders are being taken, meaning it's fairly likely they'll get at least a few civilian demonstrators out if nothing else.
strat-fan89@reddit
Where did you get that from? The last news entry on their website is from 2023...
PineCone227@reddit
https://youtu.be/RbZQ_xyEL6M?t=46s
This video who's author had contacted NGAA for info
But also: https://tbbwmag.com/2026/04/15/amphibious-aircraft-program-vero-beach/
P1xelHunter78@reddit
For combat capabilities in a modern battlefield, the design process of “brining back the PBY” would essentially be: 1) take blueprints 2) throw away 3) design new aircraft 4) name it Catalina II
MariachiStucardo@reddit
Theyre for scouting, reconnaissance, etc
agha0013@reddit
which we already have better options for than rebuilding a 90 year old airframe and strapping modern equipment on it.
Drones can do a ridiculous amount of scouting and recon work without risking any humans nor an expensive airframe.
some depictions have shown it armed with basically the same weapons a reaper can carry, others with some additional armaments like an old AC-47 Spooky.
I don't know what military in the world wants these.
MariachiStucardo@reddit
Apparently you know more about it than our military - congrats!
Adjutant_Reflex_@reddit
The military isn’t buying/building this. It’s a private company self-funding while looking for government contracts to go into full production.
But so far it’s, AFAIK, not received any serious interest because it’s completely outclassed in every mission it’s supposedly capable of performing. It’ll be blown out of the sky before it could get anywhere near the battle space.
MariachiStucardo@reddit
Patrol, light transport, search & rescue
https://www.twz.com/aviation-company-relaunching-pby-5-as-modern-military-aircraft
Adjutant_Reflex_@reddit
I too have read that article and the key piece at the bottom is that there’s been no interest from the people this is supposedly aimed at.
It’s vaporware and it’ll never go beyond some Blender renders.
MariachiStucardo@reddit
There were other comments which presumed that this aircraft would be involved in battle and otherwise shot down. The article I linked demonstrated the true current-state purpose in mind for it.
SirLoremIpsum@reddit
That's what the person selling is offering.
But the military is not buying. Maybe not buying yet.
But saying "oh it's gonna. Be a USAF sar plane" is insane cause no military has expressed one iota of interest.
Adjutant_Reflex_@reddit
Which is the complete opposite of what you originally listed. And still won’t happen!
Doomtime104@reddit
There's also satellites that carry a lot of the reconnaissance load. Of course, their orbits mean that they can't really loiter like an aircraft can.
FactThin7186@reddit (OP)
Looking at the official website, it looks like they have been in the business of restoring Catalina's since 2012. If they are only upgrading engines and avionics, i wouldn't think it to far out of the question that said with their projected date of 2029 they may be trying to update the airframe with newer materials. Unless engines and avionics alone take that long to overhaul.
FactThin7186@reddit (OP)
Well, here's to hoping 🙂 I'd be surprised too but I'd love to see it pull through
UNDR08@reddit
Don’t believe it until it’s sitting on the ramp… or floating at the dock in this case.
koolkitty89@reddit
It's amphibious, so literally could be either.
Had more old airframes been mothballed in boneyards, a conversion project would be more realistic ... but a ground-up modern reproduction is another matter. (yes, it's easier to integrate systems and electronics, wiring runs, etc, and meet modern FAA standards ... though that also depends on the original design and how inaccessible the wiring runs would be, as with having to tear down massive portions of the structure to rewire it as with the new Doomsday 747s)
And an all new design derived from the old aerodynamics and layout would have to seriously consider the value and utility of the original aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, and layout vs a total clean-sheet design. (OTOH amphibious seaplane design is also somewhat of a lost art, so some reverse engineering might be a legitimate leg-up there that shortens development time)
Whisky-354@reddit
Don't believe it until it's sitting outside and you can go piss on the tires
Intelligent-Cloud560@reddit
They should sell tons of these planes to drug smugglers. :)
hatlad43@reddit
Eyyy does that mean we would get the 30-hour, The Double Sunrise flight between Perth and Sri Lanka again?
rayman499@reddit
Is there any actual use case for this? I’m really struggling to see how this gets used for anything.
If I really stretch my imagination, if sea levels rise, maybe a bunch of landing strips end up under water, so now you need more boat planes?
FactThin7186@reddit (OP)
A water bomber for wild fires seems the most plausible. It seems everyone is skipping that option just to shit on how bad it would be in a tactical sense.
SirLoremIpsum@reddit
Because all options are nuts.
There are clean sheet water bomber designs. There are modern flying boat designs.
Aviation has come so far for anyone to realistically look at a Catalina and go "yup we'll buy that".
This is vaporware. A pipe dream. At best.
If Ford announced they're building brand new 1969 spec Mustangs for $15,000 cause it don't come with no fancy stuff like lane keep and air bags you'd look at your calendar and see it's April 1st.
rayman499@reddit
Yea I wasn’t even trying to shit on it. I was genuinely curious. Cause I really thought its utility only came from specifically a conflict over the pacific ocean. With modern engine efficiencies/aircraft ranges I kinda of figured the need was more or less obsolete.
But the use case you describe doesn’t sound totally unreasonable, albeit a bit niche.
Fwiw, I do think the idea of a modernized version is very cool, albeit maybe not practical.
d-mike@reddit
It's bad from other senses too. Let's look at two possibilities:
Rebuild existing airframes with modern engines and such, still have old airframes, corrosion, fatigue life etc, and a large logistics support trail relative to the number of aircraft built.
Build new airframes to the existing design. Now you not only have an outdated design and materials but you still have to build a modern manufacturing flow, tooling etc. it's actually better to do a clean sheet design that looks like the old airframe but with modern materials and design tools, including design for manufacturing, taking advantage of PLM natively, probably doing some form of "digital engineering" and modern manufacturing techniques.
FactThin7186@reddit (OP)
Oh, cool.
ElSquibbonator@reddit
Even then, we already have the CL-415 for that.
FactThin7186@reddit (OP)
Yup. That just seems the most likely to me.
One_Significance_244@reddit
A company tried to do this with the G-21 goose (Antilles Seaplane) a few years back and failed miserably. This will no doubt end the same. People don’t want this plane. Don’t get me wrong the Catalina was a bad bitch but the world wants something clean sheet with modern composite, aluminum and titanium components that withstand corrosion and if possible pressurization with a low cabin altitude.
TinKicker@reddit
This company already owns the type certificate for the PBY. (That alone is a multi-million dollar piece of paper.) Along with all the blueprints and design specs from Consolidated.
It also appears they’ve been restoring Catalinas to commercial flight status for quite a while. So they’ve got some pretty deep experience and expertise in their corner. It’s not just some rich kid who’s thinking “wouldn’t this be cool.”
The hard part is already done (certification). Might as well slap a couple PT-6s and a G-1000 on it and fly it around the world!
SirLoremIpsum@reddit
No the hard part is convincing any commercial operators to shell out cash for one.
Which isn't going to happen.
darrirl@reddit
Just have a look at this companies website - has all the vibes of a 17 year olds boys pipe dream .. if the build quality of the site is anything to go by I wouldn’t get in one on the ground never mind the air or water ..
P1xelHunter78@reddit
It’s an almost 100 year old design. And yes I know B-52 this and that yada yada. Aircraft were totally different in the 30’s and even light years away from 1950’s jet designs. The idea that you’re gonna just slap some new engines on a WII combat plane that even got replaced by newer designs before the war ended is rich. And what’s it gonna do? It’s a 90 year old solution looking for a problem.
Jukeboxshapiro@reddit
It's not completely without precedent, the Basler BT-67 is pretty successful being really the only aircraft in its very particular niche and it's a conversion of a nearly 100 year old airframe. I think the challenge is more of an economic one than an engineering one, I can't imagine there's much demand for a cargo flying boat and it'll be hugely more expensive to build new airframes from the ground up rather than just converting existing ones like the Basler.
P1xelHunter78@reddit
Well the Basler is successful because there are existing airframes to convert and the DC-3 was already designed to operate from grass and unimproved surfaces. Aside from that, there’s a use case in extremely remote areas of Canada and Alaska. If you had to build an entire DC-3 from the ground up it would not be viable. It’s the same with the B-52. If all of them disappeared tomorrow into thin air it would not be cost/benefit effective just to rebuild an old design. This goes for the Catalina. If for some reason the US military had loads of them in inventory still they might be interested… but a plane from the ground up isn’t gonna happen
darrirl@reddit
Would love to see it happen always had a soft spot - saw one as young fella and what a machine.
Blue_foot@reddit
They are working “around the clock” on this project though!
ZincII@reddit
r/noncredibledefense is leaking again.
Gratefulzah@reddit
I mean, if I were a rich man and wanted to go island hopping.......a modernized Catalina would be dope.
They won't do it, but itd be awesome
Kittensoffury123@reddit
As cool as this is, really what nation would want to buy a nearly century old airframe when they could buy the licenses for something like the shinmaywa US-2, which is the exact same thing but already proven to, you know, work.
JustPlaneNew@reddit
I guess China has modern flying boats, so now we need one too.
OmnariNZ@reddit
It gets better, the artist's renditions from catalina aircraft depict it with hellfire missiles, underslung RHIB boats on the wings, and half the armament of an AC-130 hanging out the side.
It was so mad, I shitposted about it a couple months back.
welderch0@reddit
I recall this, but didn’t hear about them adding the 105mm howitzer. Could you imagine flying over the ocean thinking that this would be a weapon choice? Jeez that kick it would cause🫏🥊
redefinedwoody@reddit
At what point is trying to insert a special forces team in a flying boat doing less than 200 knots with the radar signature of a barn seem like a good idea?
I love the idea it's as silly as all the new Concordes ( like Concorde but quiet and economical) and as likely to fly.
nyc_2004@reddit
Didn’t socom say they were looking into a float-plane C-130? Perhaps this is what came of that
redefinedwoody@reddit
Possibly, you can't sneak a C130 in anywhere people are looking. The raid on Entebbe worked once. It's big and noisy so anywhere near a heavy machine gun is going to be a bad time for it. Let alone radar or infrared-guided weapons.
Blue_foot@reddit
185 knots
Unpressurized hull (lol)
“our senior management team (which has over 350 years of combined experience in civilian & defense aviation acquisition, development, production, test, evaluation, operations, and support)” they don’t name them though
Website is “powered by godaddy” which means they bother to pay $15/month to get rid of that
https://catalinaaircrafttrust.com/ngaa-home
DueRequirement1440@reddit
That first graphic on the company's web page looks like something from a government slide deck. I wonder if the company just got a contract to research the feasibility of updating the design and are just talking it up a lot.
ProudlyWearingThe8@reddit
And these are probably the guys behind the project...