Pics of the wrecked PBY - N85U

Warbirdnerd · **Joined:** Fri Apr 30, 2004 7:34 pm **Posts:** 2923

Unscrupulously linked from this FaceBook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/RathminesMemor ... fref=photo

TAdan · **Posted:** Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:08 am

Man, what a bummer. Atleast it's with a museum now rather than being scrapped. I hope they can make a nice display.

JohnB · **Posted:** Thu Dec 10, 2015 9:11 am

Until a couple of years ago, it was based about 10 miles from me as a fire bomber. Saw it fly over many times and recently spoke to one of its pilots.

Oh well, get out the glue.

marine air · **Posted:** Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:26 am

What are the names of the pilots? I'd like to make sure they get credit for their fine flying skills. Ditto for the salvage company.

P.S. It's so horribly damaged it may be too far gone to rebuild as a static. Maybe it could be used in a diorama of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:29 am

I rank this loss alongside the Kee Bird and Liberty Belle fires. Just sad.

Anymore recent non-fatal accidents come to mind?

TheBoy · **Posted:** Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:36 am

Man, this is painful to look at! Anybody have any insight on why the #1 is feathered?

StangStung · **Posted:** Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:37 am

Yeesh.

sandiego89 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2012 12:28 pm **Posts:** 1196

Warbird Kid wrote:

I rank this loss alongside the Kee Bird and Liberty Belle fires. Just sad.

Anymore recent non-fatal accidents come to mind?

I do not quite put Liberty Belle into the same class. Same result perhaps, but not the same gut feeling. I know some criticized the response by the fire department, but I say good job getting her down so quick and tough luck that the fire truck was not able to reach her through the mud. From the comfort of my arm chair, I say Kee Bird and the PBY as more "sad" and preventable.

As for the other semi-recent non-fatals that may cause similar feelings: the 307 Starliner ditching due to fuel quantity issues, the various bad luck by several fw-190 projects...

BAJ · **Joined:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:14 pm **Posts:** 126

marine air wrote:

What are the names of the pilots? I'd like to make sure they get credit for their fine flying skills. Ditto for the salvage company.

P.S. It's so horribly damaged it may be too far gone to rebuild as a static. Maybe it could be used in a diorama of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Diorama is an interesting thought.....however she should be readily usable as a static. It really is amazing what can be done.

The Lake Boga Cat in Victoria Australia is made up of scavenged parts of no less than three PBY's.

http://www.flyingboat.org.au/index.php/about/what-s-on-display

A team of volunteers from HARS helped refurbish the blisters, and paint her. The fuselage has gal sheet metal over the joints with self tapping screws holding it all together. From 50' you cant tell !!

p51 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:39 am

Could you even make a FAA-certifiable flying aircraft out of her again?
Man, it looks like someone went insane with a giant chainsaw, doesn't it? I couldn't imagine more damage if someone purposely tried!
I don't know much about airplane insurance but I'd love to know the details about if this plane had coverage for a loss like that and how the subrogation demand would look against the crane company...

marine air · **Posted:** Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:52 am

The thought on the diorama would be to recreate the famous photo of the attack on Pearl Harbor where there's a burning bombed PBY with lots of smoke and Japanese aircraft flying over and sailors running to take cover. The idea is for the PBY parts to be strewn out like in the photo with tufts of air simulating it being strafed by a Val or Kate.
A backdrop wall and do it like Disney World does their 3-D interactive cinemas. A lot cheaper and more interesting than trying to cobble it back together. Everything on the PBY is screwed up. Look at the holes in the sponsons, the smashed leading edges on wing and the fuselage torn into several chunks.

Compare it to wreckage of a P-51 and then start adding dollars to each sub assembly. However, the Pima volunteers do make magic again and again.

JohnH · **Posted:** Sat Dec 12, 2015 4:29 pm

I was told it's not economically feasible to put this back in the air. It would be over 1,5 million if you could do it. There's a PBY for sale for 345K right now.

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:32 am

JohnH wrote:

There's a PBY for sale for 345K right now.

Which one?

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