Green PBY Catalina Plane Tag / Planetags

Description

This planetag is genuine skin from a PBY-5A Catalina, Serial# Bu46590 manufactured for the US Navy in 1944 at the Consolidated factory in New Orleans. It saw active USN service on patrol over the Atlantic and training missions over the Pacific. It then served with the US Coast Guard in Florida, Washington State and Alaska. It was sold surplus in June 1950 to California Aircraft Corporation and registered as N68756. It was converted to civilian use and was purchased in 1952 by Fullerton Oil Company of Pasedena, California for use as a VIP corporate aircraft. It was then sold in 1960 to Herb Schriner, a TV personality, who modified the interior to resemble Jules Verne’s Nautilus submarine! It continued to be owned privately until 1977 when it was bought by the Quebec Labrador Mission to deliver supplies to remote settlements. It was acquired 1979 by the Confederate Air Force of Harlingen, Texas which flies WW2 aircraft in air shows. The CAF then put it in Royal Australian Air Force colours as Catalina NB-N. It flew the 9700 miles and 55 hours flying time from Monterey, California to Brisbane, Australia in January 1981 for an Australian tour celebrating the 60th anniversary of the RAAF. The CAF continued to fly it until 1986 when it was retired for maintenance reasons. It was used for parts and ended up at the Pima Aviation Museum in Arizona.
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