whistlingdeathcorsairs wrote:
none can be saved?
I'm not sure what you are referring to?
Quote:
These were taken at the Ephrata, WA, airport in Spring 1991. They are the fuselages of PBY-6A N2886D/BuNo 64034 and PBY-5A BuNo 33979. N2886D was destroyed in a 1985 accident while scooping water fighting a fire. Both hulks were owned by Bob Schlaflei, who operated a half dozen PBYs in Eastern Washington as air tankers during the 1980s.
Of the two hulks mentioned in the opening post copied above, the blue PBY-5A listed as BuNo 33979 moved to NZ to provide parts support to the flying PBY there and has since moved on to static display in a museum in Taurange NZ as a 3/4 fuselage with mockup turret in its blue USN colour scheme, posts above contain links to its new home.
As per David's post above its now being positively identified
Quote:
As the post referring to my article on the Catalina Society website above shows, the identity of the Tauranga/Ephrata/Hemet hulk was established a while back although since the start of this original thread. To confirm, it is US Navy PBY-5A BuAer48334, more recently N74821 and N9535C.
The White 1/2 fuselage N2886D however succumbed to the scrapper and lost its rear fuselage as per my last post on page 1 of this thread, and has more recently been fully scrapped for parts recovery.
The Australian National Aviation Museum recovered its remains and many other "ex-Schlaflei" parts (left over from the aborted SLAFCO / Moses Lake auction??) such as wings, floats, ailerons, fins, rudders, tailplanes and elevators to support the long term restoration of a former RAAF PBY-5A A24-88 that has combat service as a "Black Cat" in the Pacific.
http://www.aarg.com.au/Catalina.htmSurplus usable parts that were not shipped to Australia were traded to Pima for other surplus parts for A24-88, so little went to waste or to scrap, so what could be saved, has been saved.
Regards
Mark Pilkington
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