Find Plane
This is the summary of plane numbers I derived from PBY Catalina in Action, by Capt.W.E.Scarborough. You can also search by side (squadron) numbers, registration numbers, and occasionally, by c/n. Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard (for example: 81-P-*) to return up to 200 planes. There are more details below the table.
FLYING BOATS AMPHIBIANS
XPBY-1
PBY-1
PBY-2
PBY-3
PBY-4
PBY-5
Commercial
XPBY-5A
PBY-5A
PBY-6A
28-5
OA-10A
Canso A
See below
Guba I-
Guba II
46639-
46698
9737-
9750
44-33868-
44-34097
9751-
9805
Transatlantic
04792-
05045
46724
Y74-
Y85
9806-
9844
Mail1-
Mail3
7243-
7302
63993-
64099
11001-
11090
P9630
FP525-
FP533
64101-
64107
FP535-
FP536
28-5 PBY-5 PBY-5B PBN-1 PB2B-1 PB2B-2 Color legend
02948-
02977
Color legend
W8405-
W8434
FP100-
FP324
02791-
02946
44205
JX618-
JX662
Catalina IA
(28-5AMC)
04399-
04420
Catalina IA
(28-5AMC)
AM264-
AM269
04425-
04514
44220-
44223
JZ828-
JZ841
Catalina IB
33960-
34059
Catalina ?
(28-5NME)
AH530-
AH569
08124-
08549
?????
(x 194)
JX645-
JX646
Catalina II
(28-5ME)
08030-
08123
Catalina IIIA
Z2134-
Z2153
JX571-
JX585
NZ4023-
NZ4056
JX648
Catalina IIA
(28-5MC Canso)
46450-
46579
PBV-1A
(67832-68061)
AJ154-
AJ162
JV925-
JV935
A24-200
A24-206
JX652
Catalina IVA
48252-
48451
9701-
9736
NZ4001-
NZ4022
A24-300-
A24-309
Catalina IVB
46580-
46638
JX200-
JX269
A24-350-
A24-386
Catalina VI
63992

Planes
From this page, you'll be able to "drill down" through the database. The first level currently shows the general information about the plane, including sources, photos, and a list of owners. During the plane's military career, each squadron or unit is listed as a separate owner. For each owner, you can drill down to the sources that list the ownership (sometimes there are conflicts), photos taken during the ownership, and base assignments during the ownership. At the base-assignment level, you can drill down to the sources and photos pertinent to the base assignment. You can also list the flights/actions the plane made from that base. From the flight/action level, you can again list the sources and photos for the flight, and you can drill down to list the flight crew.

Please remember that there are around four thousand PBYs and the records have been scattered and lost over the past sixty years, so this database will always be largely incomplete. (Your contributions would be greatly appreciated!) I'm scanning and posting the public records I find in various archives. Often, I have to make inferences (noted in my source references) from these documents; feel free to double-check my data and correct my interpretations. The Books page lists other valuable sources I've used. These books provide a much better sense of history and experience than the distilled data at this web site - they are worth finding.

Squadrons
Another section of the database details PBY squadron histories. Occasionally, an unrelated squadron or ship history will be included due to a personal interest. (This is also true of some archive documents.)

Crews
The military careers of PBY crewmembers are detailed in a new section, still under construction. Also, see the PBY Catalina International Association's web site.