The PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile aircraft of the Second World War. Involved from start to finish, in every theatre, in a variety of roles. It was a Catalina that spotted the Bismarck, the Japanese fleet sailing towards Ceylon and the Jappanese carrier fleet at Midway. They ranged far and wide out into the Atlantic and north towards the Arctic Circle.

Jeff Boyling is a part owner and pilot of Catalina GPBYA. In this video, he explores the design, operational history and his own experience with the Catalina. Thanks to Jeff, David Legg and The Catalina Society for their help in making this video.

Find out more about the Catalina Society: https://www.catalina.org.uk/

Explore and licence the film clips used in this video from IWM Film:
https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/co...

Find out more about IWM Duxford's flying aircraft: https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/flying...

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Attributions:
Thumbnail image by Sergey Vladimirov. CC BY 2.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Images of GPBYA courtesy of Caz Caswell, David Legg and the David Legg Collection.