Planelopnik Assemble - Catalina PBY Sleuthing Question

"Gamecat235" (Gamecat235) 07/01/2015 at 12:31 • Filed to: Consolidated PBY Catalina, PBY, Catalina, Planelopnik, Boneyard, Vintage Aircraft, 1950's

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So I just responded to Tyler’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! about something that has been bothering my father for decades. I’ve included all of the details regarding the question below. However, I figured I would pass the question along on Oppo, since I bothered to document it all, and we’ve got a fairly savvy group of airplane aficionados.

When my father was a kid - somewhere in the mid to late 1950’s. His father and him were driving on a highway - we’ve been presuming that it was somewhere between Tucson and Phoenix but it could have been somewhere in or around Phoenix back then, and they came upon a whole field of Catalina PBYs. My father remembers one was flipped upside down, but there was a poorly maintained fence and the two of them climbed through it and actually climbed up into one of those planes and sat in the cockpit.

My grandfather had been an inspector for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft during the war, working at the plant in Tucson doing conversions mostly on B-24s - adding belly turrets and various other things. Because of this and other experiences my dad was then and still is fascinated by planes and this is one of those memories that just seems to be deeply imprinted in him.

So, I’ve got to pass this along to the commentariat in general, and the experts here, does anyone have any idea where this might have been? I personally suspect Litchfield Park, or possibly Kingman, but would like to know more if possible.

(Some sidenotes, both my father and I are native Tucsonans, and as best as he can determine it may not have been an AFB -though it sounds like it was. Definitely was not AMARC/AMARG or any of it’s predecessors in or around Tucson. Though in an unrelated story, when all of the B-36’s came to AMARC to be retired, my father says he could hear them a good 5 to 15 minutes prior to being able to see them. This was definitely north of Tucson, and quite likely north of Casa Grande, and any information about a field of grounded, abandoned PBY’s would be nice to know about).

For Sweden > Gamecat235 07/01/2015 at 12:34

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I got nothing, but if you know if there are still wrecked PBY’s lying around, let me know.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Gamecat235 07/01/2015 at 12:41

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Not Pheonix then, I thought maybe NAS Litchfield Park

Gamecat235 > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 07/01/2015 at 12:53

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Being a relative youngun (I’m only 40), I tend to think of Litchfield Park as absolutely being part of Phoenix, but in the same way I think of Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, etc, as being part of Phoenix, I know that they aren’t, but they are Phoenix Metro Area.

At that point in time, my grandfather’s company was regularly installing venetian blinds all around the state, so the fact that it was north of Tucson is really all he can be certain of (e.g. wasn’t on the way down to Sierra Vista / Fort Huachuca or out toward Willcox).

I’ve come across a couple of things online that have talked about singular PBY’s being stored at Litchfield, but never dozens or more of them. And I know that Kingman held tons of old WWII birds after the war, but haven’t found much regarding Catalina’s.

Gamecat235 > For Sweden 07/01/2015 at 12:55

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I’ll be sure to keep you in mind when I find this mythical land. =)

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Gamecat235 07/01/2015 at 13:01

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Contact someone at the Warbird Registry, they must know.

RallyWrench > Gamecat235 07/01/2015 at 13:03

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Was the boneyard at Pima around then?

Gamecat235 > RallyWrench 07/01/2015 at 13:25

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Yeah, AMARC/MASDC was established by then. All of the B-36’s were sent there when they were decommissioned.

Gamecat235 > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 07/01/2015 at 13:35

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I think I will. And I’m thinking it has to be Litchfield Park the more I dig and dig.

Also, though there may not have been any PBY’s there then, check out these pictures from 1966 http://www.dhc-2.com/Litchfield_Par…

(ETA: 64072 was stored at Litchfield, 46633 was too, and so was 64017 , I’m guessing if I keep digging, I’ll find more).

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Gamecat235 07/01/2015 at 13:47

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If he only saw it the one time maybe it was somewhat temporary, pictures from the 50’s show Corsairs etc.

Gamecat235 > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 07/01/2015 at 13:57

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We’ve always lived in Tucson as a family, so we wouldn’t have much occasion, even then, to get out to the west side of the Phoenix valley. As best as he can recall, it would have been just the once that he saw the PBY’s there. While my searches have largely returned the same as yours ( tons of Corsairs), there does seem to be a pattern of PBY’s being stored at Litchfield in the late 50’s possibly into the very early 60’s (and having lived in Tucson for nearly all of my life, I’ve seen a lot of stuff come and go at AMARC/AMARG).

The Compromiser > Gamecat235 07/01/2015 at 16:04

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We have an old RAF one nearby. They are using it to salvage parts to convert the one they fly back to original specs (needs the front turret installed).

The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) > Gamecat235 07/02/2015 at 11:26

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This may be a longshot, but you should scour the local airfields on Historic Aerials , a website that works like Google Maps through history. They often have photos going back to the 40’s, so you might get lucky and find that field full of Catalinas sitting in the desert.

On another note, that website is great for losing hours of your life.

Gamecat235 > The Powershift in Steve's '12 Ford Focus killed it's TCM (under warranty!) 07/02/2015 at 11:43

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Oh god. I can see losing hours of productivity personal time there.

Zzoyd > Gamecat235 07/02/2015 at 12:37

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Gamecat ~ sorry, “AMARC/AMARG”?

Also, are there any WWII boneyards still extent?

Gamecat235 > Zzoyd 07/02/2015 at 12:45

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The boneyard that is connected to Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson is now called AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group), but was for many years AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center) as well as MASDC (Military Aircraft Storage and Disposal Center).

I’ve posted about AMARG many times including posts and photos from the two 5k’s which were held at AMARG in recent years.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/tag/amarg

And as far as I know, no, there are not any remaining WWII boneyards. All airframes were either scrapped, restored, sold or provided to museums for display.

ttyymmnn > Gamecat235 07/02/2015 at 15:44

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http://www.johnweeks.com/boneyard/#SITE…

This page from a history of the Catalina mentions “the great Catalina boneyard at Litchfield Park, Arizona.”

Litchfield is now the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport, and there are quite a few jets in storage there, but no PBYs. They must have been scrapped some years ago.

Gamecat235 > ttyymmnn 07/02/2015 at 15:48

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Yeah, I know exactly where it is now. And those pieces from that book just cemented what I was thinking. Thank you! It simply has to hav e been NAS Litchfield Park.

ttyymmnn > Gamecat235 07/02/2015 at 16:13

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I’m sure it was. I dig sleuthing around! Glad to help.