If It Can Fly, It Can Float!!!

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That may be a USN PBY but it's certainly not USN camouflage. Looks rather like the Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey scheme applied to RAF Catalinas.

Strangely enough, only the right side of the the photo was colorized. That's why it seems to be grey I think. Correct me if I am wrong.

Hi gents,

The aircraft in question is a Lend Lease Catalina 1B from the serial range FP100 thru FP324 (225 total aircraft). While the camouflage is British, other photos in the series show the American markings. After December 1941, things got pretty busy and we withheld many of the Lend Lease aircraft we were supposed to supply our allies. (And the photos are original Kodachromes from the Library of Congress.)

Pretty sexy looking scheme, no?

Cheers,


Dana
 
Nice WWII shots of a Kingfishers. Note how they had to fold the antenna over. Also note the name on the lower bird.View attachment 513010 View attachment 513011

In the second shot, note the two thinner cables above the observer's hands, leading to ship. At the observer's feet is another cable clipped to the wing, running fore-and-aft; at his left foot the cable makes a 90-degree turn toward the wingtip. On the opposite wing you can see a similar cable leading forward to the leading edge (it then wraps around the leading edge to attach to the outboard float struts). The observer attached one cable on either side of the pilot's cockpit to each of the overhead cables, allowing the deck crew to turn the aircraft as they hoisted it aboard.

I love that photo, which was taken aboard Arizona in summer 1941 during Dog Recovery exercises.

Cheers,


Dana
 

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