A study in grace and beauty....there's only one jet worthy the name Lightning....

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To my eyes that bump added underneath would make an aircraft unstable at high speeds, just shows how poor my eyes work.
 
To be fair, you could line them up on a runway and both open the throttles, the EE Lightning would get to the other end first !
The P-38 would then over take it and take off as the EE Lightning would have ran out of fuel !

it could not have taken of where a real Lightning would have take off..... Ever...
 
I think so....and the Catalina....and the Mustang....and....
*ahem*
The PBY got it's name from a nearby island (Santa Catalina), as Consolidated was based out of San Diego.

The PB2Y got it's name also from a nearby island (Coronado) that ironically, was connected to the mainland by a huge Navy construction project during WWII.
 

True....
Just saying what they mentioned in one of them there Discovery Channel programs, or if it was History Channel....about the Catalina.
 
On 20 December 1939, the Navy ordered 200 Consolidated PBY-5s, the largest single Navy air-craft since World War l. Contracts with Britain, France, Australia and Canada were made for 174 similar 28-5M's in the same period. The French orders were absorbed by Britain, and a new assembly line was begun in San Diego. The PBY-5 was accepted in September 1940 with 1,200 hp (takeoff) R-1830-82 engines, the first to use 100 octane fuel. Armament included two .50 caliber guns in the waist blisters with 840 rounds and a .30 caliber gun in the bow and in the tunnel with 1,500 rounds. Weight on #2289 was 15,384 Ib empty, and 28,957 Ib with 1,570 gallons of fuel. The second PBY-5 (#2290) was delivered to the Coast Guard in October 1940, registered V189, and stationed in San Francisco. November deliveries were three PBY-5 and the first three Model 28-5ME boats for Britain, registered as AM 264, W 8405 and AM 265. The British called the PBY "Catalina," a name adopted by the U.S. Navy in October 1941.

The PBY Catalina (the early history)
 
Just tellin' ya' what I heard, since I grew up in Southern California (about 30 miles away from Catalina Island, as the crow flies) and we had alot of wartime history in the southland.

Also, Consolidated had an initial contract from the USN for PBYs long before 1939. In the years following (between 1935 and 1939), they continued to fill orders as the Navy was upgrading their Patrol squadrons (Hawaii, West Coast and so on): 1935; 60 PBY-1, 1936; 50 PBY-2, 1936; 66 PBY-3, 1937; 33 PBY-4.

Later, when the British adopted Consolidated's name the USN made it official as well.

It might also be found interesting that when Consolidated was on the east coast, making seaplanes for the civilian sector, they were naming their aircraft types after Naval ranks: Admiral, Commodore, etc.
 
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