This photo of a PBY-6A taken at Lancaster, California in August 1975 was sent to us by the Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. The PBY-5A and 6A were some of the first amphibious water-scooping airtankers.
I have learned that when writing about tankers from the old days, check with JD Davis since he is a great source for high quality photos and is also generous about sharing them. The five photos below, all PBY-6As, were taken by Mr. Davis, and I am very grateful that he is letting us use them.
The aircraft above (and the next three photos below) have the same FAA registration number, N6453C, but it was variously known by different Airtanker numbers.
Tanker 84, PBY-6A, N6456C, Photo by JD Davis at Ontario in November 1975
If you have seen the movie Always you remember the PBY-5A in the opening scene:
Currently a CAL FIRE S2-T is using the T-85 number:
Photos of the current Tanker 83 and Tanker 54.
If you’ve never seen it this is an interesting PBY mod.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bird_Innovator_at_Albuquerque_1995.jpg
One more then I’ll be quiet. You can see tanker 85U on the ramp at the Arlington, WA airport On google earth plug in these coordinates. 48.15875, -122.15382, then set the clock on the upper left to 7-2014. this is after it was restored. I drove by it several times while it was being restored on my way to leave my airplane engine at Aircore Aviation for service. in march 2015 it was flow to Thun field WA to be repainted for filming in the Movie where it was destroyed.
I grew up in Ramona, CA, and when we were kids in like 1974and 1975, we went out to the Ramona fire air attack airport base and watched the airtankers take off and land, I wish I had my eight millimeter movie camera back then, they had the Grunmen P-2, but it was yellow back then not white, I heard that they changed the color of them so they could see them better and the boxcar one with the double tail and the DC’s, I don’t know all of the names, but they were really cool airplanes.
Thanks, Mike. I was a CDF (It is now called Cal Fire) wildland firefighter in San Diego County beginning in 1967, working at Julian, Miramar (gone now) and Campo CDF Stations into the 1970’s. We were fortunate to often have airtankers from Ramona Air Attack Base quickly dropping on our local fires. They were sorely ‘missed’ when they were committed to Orange, Riverside and counties north.
If you want to see some of the older aircraft out of Ramona try Googling (including your comment’s “Ramona fire air attack airport base”, then at top click on images. You’d be surprised what you can see.
Thanks Greg, I will google search that, and check out the older aircraft Id like to find some old film footage out of Ramona fire air attack base, you guys are the best, thanks, Mike.
This is getting more interesting. Tanker 85 (85U) and tanker 84/85 (N6543C) are the same airplane and it spent time in Canada as C-GFFI. The article here https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aviation-interests/eaa-warbirds-of-america/articles/2015-08-careless-loss-of-pby-n85u More photos and video of destroying the PBY filming a movie in 2015. https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/salvage-attempt-on-catalina-seaplane-used-in-nic-cage-f-1715722705
There’s one in Anchorage. I’ll get some details on it and comment back.
Here’s another PBY Catalina that used to be sitting at the Arlington, WA airport. I remember it was a Washington State Department of Natural Resources water scooper stationed at Deer Park, WA . Some trivia about it: I was listening to my scanner one evening in the mid 1980s when tanker 85 came on. The pilot said he was returning to Deer Park and it was now dark. The problem was his landing gear would not come down so he was going to try and land in the Coulmbia River at the Tri Cities, WA. The Pasco tower suggested he make a water landing on the river between the Blue Bridge and the Cable bridge. They would call the sheriff to get a boat out there and make sure there were no other boats in the way. As he made his approach over the blue bridge the tower asked him if he had any night water landing experience. He replied, “This will be my first one”. It was an uneventful landing. Later on this tanker was used in making a movie and it became stuck on a sand bar. They brought out a crane and tried to lift it. The crane operator had no experience with lifting aircraft and broke it in half. That was the end of tanker 85U. Photo https://www.airplane-pictures.net/image85374.html
Amazon has books about PBYs.
My dad (enlisted Navy at age 17 (6 month’s prior to the Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Attack; a 17-year career) flew PBY’s on submarine patrols in the Atlantic between South America and Africa. I was actually able to track-down his PBY aircraft’s next assignment in Rescue service in Canada.
My dad flew on the PBY during WWII in the Pacific and I have his flight book, so precious to me. I love the PBY and also wonder if there is a book about them specifically. Thanks for the photos. 👍❤️
That was my father-in-law James McCown that flew the PBY in the movie Always
Hey warren, the Always movie PBY is sitting on the ramp at the Ephrata, WA airport. If you plug these coordinates into google earth you can zoom in on it. 47.31323, -119.51896. Here’s some more information about it including a recent video walk around. http://www.aerialvisuals.ca/AirframeDossier.php?Serial=18308
I love the PBY, although I never flew in one. I wonder if there is book out there about them in WW2? I know that they were flown in the Aleutians war, and some for the Battle of the Atlantic. The embedded video is priceless!
I have about a dozen books on the PBY “Catalina”. My Dad’s WWII logbook is online,, showing nearly 3000 hours before returning stateside from the SW Pacific.
Check Amazon for what’s available today.
Thank you, I will! My first love is the C-130. I did fly in those.
There’s a lot of reading about PBY’s during WWII. Googling “PBY WWII” will return a lot. I researched my dad’s time patrolling the North Atlantic. Fascinating reading, many stories.