Find Plane Frames
Here is my list of plane numbers (derived from PBY Catalina in Action by Capt.W.E.Scarborough). I had to prepend a "0" to 4-digit BuNos to make them sort correctly. You can also search by side (squadron) numbers, registration numbers, and occasionally, by c/n. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard (for example: 81-P-*) to return up to 200 planes. More details follow these tables.

FLYING BOATS AMPHIBIANS
XPBY-1 PBY-1 PBY-2 PBY-3 PBY-4
9459 0102-
0161
0454-
0503
0842-
0907
1213-
1245
Commercial
Guba I-
Guba II
Transatlantic
Mail1-
Mail3
P9630
XPBY-5A PBY-5A PBY-6A 28-5 OA-10A Canso A
1245 2456-
2488
46639-
46698
9737-
9750
44-33868-
44-34097
9751-
9805
04792-
05045
46724 Y74-
Y85
9806-
9844
7243-
7302
63993-
64099
11001-
11090
FP525-
FP533
64101-
64107
FP535-
FP536
02948-
02977
04399-
04420
33960-
34059
08030-
08123
46450-
46579
48252-
48451
46580-
46638
28-5 PBY-5 PBY-5B PBN-1 PB2B-1 PB2B-2
W8405-
W8434
2289-
2455
FP100-
FP324
02791-
02946
44205 JX618
JX662
AM264-
AM269
04425-
04514
44220-
44223
JZ828-
JZ841
AH530-
AH569
08124-
08549
?????
(x 194)
JX645-
JX646
Z2134-
Z2153
JX571-
JX585
NZ4023-
NZ4056
JX648
AJ154-
AJ162
JV925-
JV935
A24-200
A24-206
JX652
9701-
9736
NZ4001-
NZ4022
A24-300-
A24-309
JX200-
JX269
A24-350-
A24-386
63992
Catalina I
(28-5ME)
Catalina IA
(28-5AMC)
(28-5NME)
Catalina IB
Catalina II
(28-5ME)
Catalina IIA
(28-5MC Canso)
Catalina IIIA
Catalina IVA
Catalina IVB
Catalina VI
PBV-1A
(67832-68061)


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.