Warbird Information Exchange

What is the meaning of the acronym ARIRS (or AR1RS?) used by this Air Rescue PBY Catalina during the late 1940s or early 50s?
Best,

Could it be an early an early attempt at international acronyms so that non US personnel could understand the mission? Didn't Air Sea Rescue become Sea Air Rescue because SAR was more readily understandable in Europe?

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"I can't understand it, I cut it twice and it's still too short!" Robert F. Dupre' 1923-2010 Go With God.

I believe it is 'AR 1RS' and it means 'Air Rescue - 1st Rescue Squadron'. In Europe 'SAR' meant 'Search and Rescue', not as suggested in the post immediately above.

Any chance of posting the complete photo John?

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David Legg
Editor, The Catalina News
The Catalina Society
Author: Consolidated PBY Catalina - The Peacetime Record

Thank you very much for the info.
Photo credit is unknown, obtained from a Guatemalan aviation site with an incorrect photo caption: 'Guatemala, 1945'. Possibly Guatemala, but taken after 1947 ...

What's up with the nose turret? Looks like something's been added to it.


BTW: Looks like a modern WWII themed "hangar dance". Women in long skirts, GIs in baggy tans, nearby Jeep...

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

That was the final version of the front turret on pig boats utilizing twin .50's and that's a -6 given the tall fin and landing gear as all the NAF PBN 'NOMADS' were straight boats and Boeing Canada had ceased production of P2B2's (which also had the tall tail) by then. Too bad we can't see a s/n. I've always wondered about the effects of sitting right under that radar antenna-

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

In fact, although it would have been built as a "-6" (ie: PBY-6A) for the US Navy, the aircraft shown is an aircraft diverted to the air force and as such is an OA-10B.

The designation "P2B2" that is quoted above as an aside should correctly read PB2B-2.

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David Legg
Editor, The Catalina News
The Catalina Society
Author: Consolidated PBY Catalina - The Peacetime Record

Fat fingers

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

USAF OA-10B, Lago Atitlán, Guatemala. Perhaps 45-57834?

Photo credit unknown (Blanco Azul ... Guatemalan aviation site).

Here are a few pages from a PBY-6A Flight Manual showing the late model bow turret as well as the waist guns.Again,sorry that these pages are so large,but that seems to be the only size that I can use from my Photobucket files for some reason.

Thanks so much for posting the photo!! It's the first photo I've ever seen of the OA-10B let alone in great color. IIRC, the USAAF received 75 A/C all from Consolidated's New Orleans factory.