Britain gallery: Catalina

With the exception of the Mk 1 or Mk 11 Spitfire (which are in a class of their own), I

think the Consolidated PBY-5A 'Catalina' is the most elegant old warbird still flying,

closely followed by the Grumman Tigercat. But where the Tigercat was a triumph of

style over substance - its performance was fairly poor and, beautiful though it was to

look at, few were subsequently made - the Catalina, a long-distance reconaissance and

anti-submarine aircraft, went on to have numerous lives after WW2, most noticably

as a fire-fighting aircraft. This beauty is heading home after an air display on the East

Coast. After several passes along the seafront, everyone must have got a good

picture of it, but I can confidently predict that this is the only one that looks like this, as

it's actually a composite picture with the evening sky (the original sky being just too

dull for my liking!).

With the exception of the Mk 1 or Mk 11 Spitfire (which are in a class of their own), I think the

Consolidated PBY-5A 'Catalina' is the most elegant old warbird still flying, closely followed by the

Grumman Tigercat. But where the Tigercat was a triumph of style over substance - its

performance was fairly poor and, beautiful though it was to look at, few were subsequently made -

the Catalina, a long-distance reconaissance and anti-submarine aircraft, went on to have numerous

lives after WW2, most noticably as a fire-fighting aircraft. This beauty is heading home after an air

display on the East Coast. After several passes along the seafront, everyone must have got a

good picture of it, but I can confidently predict that this is the only one that looks like this, as it's

actually a composite picture with the evening sky (the original sky being just too dull for my

liking!).

Homeward bound