4-Engined PBY Catalina

[allardjd 1,853]

I recently found these photos while cleaning out some old junk, providing evidence that I've always been an airport bum.

 

These are from 1985 and were taken while we were on vacation in Florida. I remember seeing a sign for a small airport near the Kennedy Space Center and taking a side road to have a look. This one caught my eye. At the time I took the two extra engines to be turbo-props. Looking again now I'm not so sure. The exhaust plumbing looks odd and appears to have multiple outlets, suggesting a piston engine of some kind, but certainly different from the two standard radial engines. From the nacelles and the propeller size, they may have just been conventional GA-type Lycoming or Continental engines.

 

I looked up the registration number in the FAA database before making this post and the number is "unassigned". Whatever this was, it's not N5907 any more, if it still exists.

 

My research indicates there was a 4-engine XPB2Y-1 built in the late thirties. Though it was based on the PBY, it looks nothing like this, which appears to be a much more recent innovation.

 

Anyone have any clues about this? I'm of the opinion that it may very well have been a one-of-a-kind, but don't know for sure.

 

 

[mutley 4,498]

What a beauty :wub

I love the shape of the front end from the cockpit forward.

Thanks for posting John