Imagine when you were capable of restore to factory production any of the classic combat aircraft of World War II. Even given some modest modernizations, could any of those venerable warbirds have viable area of interest in industrial or military service 80 years later?
The team at Florida-based Catalina Aircraft believes that the reply is yes—no less than relating to the legendary Catalina amphibious flying boat. On July 25, 2023, the corporate announced that it was planning to start out production on brand-new Catalinas outfitted with modern turboprop engines and cockpit displays.
The Consolidated Catalina—technically designated the Model 28 at its inception, and the PBY in U.S. Navy service—led an impossibly varied and successful profession in World War II. It was operated by all major Allied military powers as a far-flying maritime patrol plane, long-range torpedo and land attack bomber, mine layer, submarine hunter, search-and-rescue plane, special operations transport, and cargo-hauler. Greater than 4,000 were in-built the USA, the Soviet Union, and Canada—where it also served under the name ‘Canso.’
By one count, 14 to 17 airworthy Catalinas and Cansos remain as of mid-2023, with no less than 7 more under restoration to flyable condition and lots of more in storage or on display.
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Founded in 2009, Catalina Aircraft holds the kind certification for the venerable aircraft, and presently services airworthy Catalinas and restores non-flyable ones to airworthy condition. Its website lists three aircraft that it has restored to Transport Category status.
The firm informed Popular Mechanics that it already has a lead customer, and is soliciting additional pre-orders for its proposed Next Generation Amphibious Aircraft (NGAA)—or Catalina II—which it says it could begin delivering by 2029 in each civilian and special purpose configurations.
Popular Mechanics reached out to Catalina Aircraft: Was the corporate really planning to construct brand-new planes?
“The Catalina II is a brand new production aircraft. We will not be refurbishing and upgrading old birds within the turboprop effort,” an organization representative replied in an email. “Our initial flight test bird will likely be a product-modification of an existing aircraft to prove out initial design concepts. Production flight test may include as many as 6 test vehicles, 3 for every variant [civil and military]. We expect to start out turbine-powered [ie. turboprop] flight tests in 2025 with latest production deliveries starting in 2029.”
As for the factory, “We’ve got several locations [in] the continental United States offered, in addition to one outside the continental United States location we’re considering. It’s all about space and the underside line.”
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Because the Catalina is a longtime design with a pre-existing Type Certificate, Catalina Aircraft maintains that it may well be put back into production more cheaply than a brand new design—even with modernizations.
“These variants will likely be added to the present Type Certificates as Variant Additions (much like what every other manufacturer has done prior to now). Nonetheless, there are limits on how much we’re permitted to “change” without creating what can be perceived as a brand new design effort requiring a more extensive certification program. The design efforts and mods we propose will still require certification in addition to flight test, all under Part 25 [FAA Airworthiness Standards: Transport Aircraft].”
The regulatory hurdles facing entirely latest designs, in contrast, render development impractical in the corporate’s estimation:
“Any proposed ‘latest’ design efforts with a brand new and complete certification program will take significantly longer than a variant addition certification program and can [cost] within the billions, driving breakeven points to an unacceptable ROI timeline. For this reason nobody has built an all latest Large Category seaplane. The economics say don’t do it…”
A key feature that the Catalina brings to the table is supportability, per the corporate:
“The unique Cats were very supportable and we’re carrying those self same features though to the brand new variants. Acquisition of a platform is straightforward. Maintaining it’s a unique story. Operators must give you the option to maintain Ao [operation availability] up high. For the military type customer, unit level BDAR [Battle Damage Assessment and Repair] can also be a crucial consideration we’re carrying forward.”
Just like the later-production PBY-5A and PBY-6A model Catalinas, the Catalina II can be amphibious—coming with each landing gear to operate from land and a hull that may float on water.
In its pitch, the corporate emphasized that hulled seaplanes are preferable to installing wing-mounted pontoons on land-based aircraft—pontoons may be fragile, handle choppy waters less well, and have greater negative impacts on aerodynamics.
A Tale of Two Catalina IIs
The corporate argues the Catalina II’s categorization as a big, boat-hulled amphibian would fulfill a novel area of interest—capable of fly farther carrying heavier cargo than possible with smaller, converted float planes.
At the identical time, the Catalina II can be smaller and than the US-2 seaplane in service in Japan, and would allegedly cost one-fourth or one-fifth as much to acquire.
A very powerful change within the Catalina II involves swapping out the unique two Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp piston engines mounted on its parasol wing for turboprops, that are more efficient at higher power and more reliable.
It’s value noting that Canadian firm Avro considered developing a ‘Turbo Canso’ powered by Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops, but wasn’t capable of follow through. Catalina Aircraft’s concept art shows a five-bladed turboprop resting atop the wing reasonably than nested inside it like the unique Twin Wasps.
The 2 variants will each feature latest retractable wingtip floats, four-segment touchscreen cockpit displays compatible with night vision goggles, interlocks to stop mistaken simultaneous deployment of landing gear and floats, construction from corrosion-resistant materials, and components in common with other in-service aircraft to ease parts availability.
The Civilian Variant is alleged to have a spread of over 1,750 miles when using sustainable fuel, due to latest high fuel-efficiency turboprops, and is pegged at a cruise speed of 213 miles per hour—a 70% increase over a PBY-5A.
Its maximum takeoff weight of 16 tons can accommodate for as much as 34 passengers with luggage, or 6 tons of internal cargo, or carriage of two air-droppable dinghies. It could operate in a “light breeze” with wavelets cresting at 6 inches.
The beefier proposed Special Use Variant is aimed primarily at government and military operators, and can be certified for operations at as much as a “gentle breeze” causing waves that crest as much as 2 feet. This model would feature uprated turboprop engines that might allow for cruising at as much as 230 miles per hour, and a redesigned Very Low Stall wing that might allow for a lower minimum speed of 71 miles per hour.
This variant would have an increased max takeoff weight of 20 tons, and an airborne endurance of 19 hours drawing from 2,710 gallons of fuel. Potential payloads include water-bombing equipment, as much as 30 fully equipped soldiers, and eight tons of internal cargo (potentially supplemented by an additional 2.5 tons storable under the wings). The latter opens up potential mission payloads akin to sensor pods, air-dropped boats, or missiles and light-weight anti-submarine torpedoes. The corporate’s website also implies that this variant might be converted into an optionally uncrewed or pure drone configuration.
Each models may be converted by removing the landing gear to save lots of weight and function a ‘pure’ flying boat.
The corporate wrote to Popular Mechanics that it has received “significant interest in each the civilian and special use variants,” and has reportedly each narrowed down the engines and avionics into account and chosen propellers. Nonetheless, it should wait to unveil those decisions until the fourth quarter of 2023, when the corporate publicizes its launch customer.
Why Seaplanes, and Why Now?
It’s hard to overstate the scope of the Catalina’s impact on the Battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific War during World War II—and that’s despite the indisputable fact that the Catalina served alongside noteworthy rivals just like the RAF’s Short Sunderland and planned successors just like the PBM Mariner and P5M Marlin.
Fleet scout, commando inserter, submarine hunter, night raider, torpedo bomber, search and rescue savior, cargo hauler—the Catalina did all of it. It was undeniably poky, with a cruising speed of 125 miles per hour, but it surely could traverse over 2,500 miles in a single go and didn’t even need an airstrip at the tip.
Catalinas helped seek out the notorious Nazi battleship Bismarck, initially spotted the approaching Japanese fleet throughout the Battle of Midway, rescued lots of of airmen and shipwrecked sailors within the Atlantic and Pacific, astonishingly scored the U.S. Navy’s first air-to-air kill of the war, and was the last Royal Air Force plane to sink a U-Boat (Allied Catalinas sank around 40, all-told). Heck, one even saved Tom Hanks within the war film Greyhound!
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And for a long time after that conflict, Catalinas served on in military and civilian roles.
But despite their critical roles in World War II, flying boats and amphibious aircraft rapidly fell out of fashion within the second half of the 20th century—longer landing fields and long-distance airliners and transport planes proliferated, and helicopters helped address access challenges at shorter distances.
Nonetheless, since military competition between the USA, China, and Russia within the Pacific and Arctic Oceans began heating back up within the 2010s, there’s been renewed interest in seaplanes for his or her potential to traverse very long distances in order to resupply and operate from distant island bases. Such bases are increasingly used to say territorial claims in contested waters just like the South China Sea, and in an actual armed conflict, could also be used to host surveillance systems and long-distance anti-air and anti-ship missile batteries to constrain an opposing force’s freedom of maneuver.
The U.S.’s Special Operations Command already plans to check a float-plane variant of the MC-130J Commando II special ops transport by 2026. The Pentagon’s advanced research agency can also be taking a look at proposals for a ‘Liberty Lifter’ ground effect seaplane that might give you the option to hold as much as two Marine amphibious combat vehicles across transoceanic distances in moderate wind and barely choppy waters.
China, meanwhile, has been testing prototypes of its latest AG600 Kunlong amphibious flying boat.
Japan’s armed forces alone, nevertheless, maintain a contemporary seaplane firmly in operational service—the ShinMaywa US-2. It also attracted interest from potential export clients, though production appears to have halted, no less than temporarily.
One other factor affecting civilian and military demand are rising sea levels linked to global warming, which can create natural disasters and attendant access problems for responders. As rising temperatures cause more out-of-control fires, seaplanes even have appeal as water bombers, seeing as they’ll readily scoop up large volumes of water just by skimming low over the water.
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Catalina Aircraft lists stocking of fisheries, ambulance, cargo and passenger transport, humanitarian aid and emergency response, postal delivery, offshore facilities support, and VIP transport as use cases for the Catalina II civilian model.
The beefier Special Use model is recommended for waterbombing, maritime search and rescue, coastal/maritime patrol, cloud seeding, mosquito control, and weather commentary (“hurricane hunters”). Proposed purely-military applications range from combat roles (anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare) and combat search and rescue and submarine emergency evacuation) to logistics (aerial refueling, bulk fuel delivery) and cold weather insertion.
Despite such diverse possibilities, even an upgraded Catalina has limitations. In military service, it could should operate outside of contested airspace resulting from its slow speed and lack of stealth—though, that’s less problematic for roles akin to counter-mine and anti-submarine warfare. Moreover, civilian and military operators alike would have to simply accept the kind’s lack of cabin pressurization and slow transit speeds, even when boosted by turboprop propulsion.
When it comes to competition, the Catalina II faces the larger, faster, and heavier-lifting Japanese US-2 and possible float-equipped MC-130—and for civilian use, the planned De Havilland DHC-515 Firefighter, successor to the CL-415 turboprop-engine amphibious waterbomber, with comparable range and engine configuration.
Catalina Aircraft stated in an email, nevertheless, that neither of those aircraft is, to their knowledge, in lively production—nor were they certified to hold civilian passengers for hire. In addition they claim that the US-2 lacks any western certification period.
While the corporate is holding back on announcing its pricings, it did also comment that the US-2 is “4-5 times the acquisition expense” of the Catalina II. A 2016 article claims the US-2 had been offered to India at a per-aircraft cost reduced from $133 to $116 million per plane.
The Catalina II thus appears envisioned to compete by way of procurement costs, reliability, and operating costs, all while filling operational niches that don’t require the most important and most costly float/amphibious solutions. It also reportedly should go further than existing short-range float planes and vertical lift-capable assets just like the MV-22 Osprey.
Time will tell if Catalina Aircraft succeeds in resurrecting a World War II legend within the 21st century. In accordance with the corporate, more specifics will likely be announced later in 2023 after they reveal their lead customer—so expect to listen to more concerning the revenant seaplane this fall.