Today History X covers the crew that served aboard the PBY Catalina.
How many were there and what were their positions
Thank you for checking out HISTORY X.
Today I am at the Commemorative Air Force Superior Wing standing in front of this PBY Black Cat Catalina
to talk to you about the crew that typically served aboard these incredible planes
as well as what their positions were.
But if we're just meeting for the first time, my name is Ken Stano
and I am a WW2 historian, mechanical engineer and pilot.
Typically a PBY Catalina operated with as many as 9 or 10 crew members depending on the configuration.
You had of course the pilot, co-pilot, there was a navigator, radio operator, radar operator,
and depending on the configuration, there could be as many as four gunners;
two waist gunners, a tail gunner, which was also known as a ventral gunner.
And if equipped, which this plane does not have it, but if equipped,
if it had a bow turret, then you would also have the bow turret gunner.
So that's where you got the 10 crew members.
So let's go inside to take a closer look.
Now in order to check out the positions on a PBY Catalina
the Commemorative Air Force has this static display Black Cat Catalina
that we can just climb inside, so let's get the door open and see what we can find.
Oh man.
So this would be the pilot's seat right here, and...
it's just, it's just amazing to have this exposed
to have this available to check-out and see what it would have been like
Controls....
I mean it's, it's tight and if you think about some of the flights that these guys were on,
that these pilots were on, six, eight hours at a time. Tight Spacing.
Get you a look underneath. In the event of a bow gunner, you know, that would have been his position up front.
The bow gunner would have to crawl between the pilot and the co-pilot.
So position number one: pilot
Position number two: co-pilot
You know again to just wonder what these guys went through.
I'm in Minnesota where the weather is, you know, relatively nice.
But when you've got sun streaming through these windows,
even though the temperature is not too bad outside, it gets really warm.
Now imagine being in the Pacific when the temperatures would be, you know, 100, 105, 110
and to have that sun streaming through this glass.
I mean I'm hot right now and it's, what maybe upper 70's, low 80's if that.
So the conditions just, you know, must have been really, really tough
preparing, pre-flighting before taking off from a Pacific island.
Now let's see if we can figure out where the radio operator would have been located.
Okay now in this middle section here
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the radio operator was located on the port side, on this side right here.
If you know for sure, please put a comment in the 'Comments' section below because I'd like to get that part right.
Opposite of the radio operator you would have had the navigator
as well as the radar operator on the starboard side of the plane.
So again, like I said a few moments ago, if I'm getting that wrong
please put a comment in the 'Comments' section below.
There was also a flight engineer
and the flight engineer had a position in the tower that attached to the wing
so that would be this position right here.
These windows are actually blacked-out but this would be where they'd be positioned.
To be at altitude running in a spot like this, pretty incredible
Pretty tight crawling through here
Now this particular plane doesn't have any blister bubbles on the waist.
Obviously port side or left waist gunner.
Starboard side, starboard gunner would have been over here.
But I gotta tell you it's just amazing being able to take a walk around
a plane like this, just to have it available.
You know we talked about the bow gunner in the event that the particular plane did have a turret up front
The bow gunner would have to crawl between the pilot and the co-pilot.
Left waist, right waist over here. So what's left? The ventral or tail gunner.
That is where we're heading.
You'd have to crawl through this hatch, lie on your stomach,
and that would be your position back there.
Pretty amazing when you think about how thin this aluminum skin is and you're lying right there
operating a 30 or 50 caliber machine gun, pretty amazing assignment.
Here it is from the outside.
So you can see the step on the hull right down here
and just past that position this is where
this is where that person would have been positioned
pretty amazing.
Sticking the camera up in here you can see this door
or piece of the hull would come down and seal it up upon landing
It's amazing what these airmen were willing to do
Okay so we talked about in the event that there was a turret up front
obviously that nose gunner would have been positioned right there.
Walking past the wheel,
starboard waist gunner right there.
So there you go; the crew of a PBY Catalina and their positions.
Now for me it's incredible to see stuff like this on display
and if you have a passion for incredible World War II historic planes like this PBY Catalina,
then please check out the link that we have in the description below
to support the Commemorative Air Force Superior Wing
in their efforts to not only restore but preserve these planes.
And of course, 'Like' if you did, 'Subscribe' if you haven't.
My name is Ken Stano.
Thank you for checking out HISTORY X.