Is anyone out there designing a scale PBY Catalina?

I was wondering if anyone else was designing (or maybe even progressed
to building) a homebuilt aircraft based on the PBY Catalina? The
reason I ask is that I have been thinking of designing one for some
time. Now that I have 1 year to go before finishing my BS in ME, I
have decided to begin working on a conceptual design.
Hopefulley I'll get around to posting some of my newer PBY stuff on my
website before too long.

I'd like to see what you guys (and gals) think of my idea. Basically I
want an adventure/bush/recreational aircraft. There are a lot of
single engine amphibs out there around 100-200hp, so I'm not going to
design something that basically already exists. What I want these
aircraft wouldn't be able to do anyway. I am looking to build
something where there is nothing very similar to it. It would be
similar size to a Widgeon, but how many of those do you see around.
I'd like to see a C185 or Beaver owner consider buying one of these. I
also don't want to go through the nosebleed the seawind went through
(basically design/build it right the first time and no BS).

I won't be building everything exactly to scale, and it will be made
of mostly composite materials (glass, CF, some kevlar, foam/balsa,
epoxy). You could call it an evolution of a PBY-6A with the R-2600
conversion. I have narrowed down the size that I am going to build.
50% scale. This puts us at 52' WS and 4750 gross, and a pair of
160-200 hp engines. My minimum goals (on 200 hp) are 2000 lbs useful
load, stall w/flaps 49 mph, 75% cruise 167 mph, takeoff from water in
under 900 feet, and have a 1500 statute mile range. I want this
aircraft to be affordable to build and operate (not RV-4 affordable,
but affordable for its size). So far my powerplant of choice is the
deltahawk diesel (although one could put whatever they wanted in for
an engine, many choices around 160-200 hp). A pair of 200hp diesels
would give this PBY the same fuel burn that a 300hp lycoming would
(about 14-16 gph). That's it in a nutshell. Whatchya think? Sound
cool?

PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson" wrote in message
m...
I was wondering if anyone else was designing (or maybe even progressed
to building) a homebuilt aircraft based on the PBY Catalina? The
reason I ask is that I have been thinking of designing one for some
time. Now that I have 1 year to go before finishing my BS in ME, I
have decided to begin working on a conceptual design.
Hopefulley I'll get around to posting some of my newer PBY stuff on my
website before too long.

I'd like to see what you guys (and gals) think of my idea. Basically I
want an adventure/bush/recreational aircraft. There are a lot of
single engine amphibs out there around 100-200hp, so I'm not going to
design something that basically already exists. What I want these
aircraft wouldn't be able to do anyway. I am looking to build
something where there is nothing very similar to it. It would be
similar size to a Widgeon, but how many of those do you see around.
I'd like to see a C185 or Beaver owner consider buying one of these. I
also don't want to go through the nosebleed the seawind went through
(basically design/build it right the first time and no BS).

I won't be building everything exactly to scale, and it will be made
of mostly composite materials (glass, CF, some kevlar, foam/balsa,
epoxy). You could call it an evolution of a PBY-6A with the R-2600
conversion. I have narrowed down the size that I am going to build.
50% scale. This puts us at 52' WS and 4750 gross, and a pair of
160-200 hp engines. My minimum goals (on 200 hp) are 2000 lbs useful
load, stall w/flaps 49 mph, 75% cruise 167 mph, takeoff from water in
under 900 feet, and have a 1500 statute mile range. I want this
aircraft to be affordable to build and operate (not RV-4 affordable,
but affordable for its size). So far my powerplant of choice is the
deltahawk diesel (although one could put whatever they wanted in for
an engine, many choices around 160-200 hp). A pair of 200hp diesels
would give this PBY the same fuel burn that a 300hp lycoming would
(about 14-16 gph). That's it in a nutshell. Whatchya think? Sound
cool?

In the early 1970's while stationed at the Pentagon a bunch of us worked on
scaling various WWII aircraft.

It became immediately obvious that there were were two things we could NOT
scale: the pilot and the engines.

Pilot-relative scaling was the most productive in that designing an airframe
just large enough to accomodate the pilot usually afforded a wider range of
engine options.

The PBY was among several pilot-relative designs. With the pilots head in the
pylon, the thing came out with a span of about 34' and, at least on paper,
could fly with a pair of C-85's.

The C-130 (with four VW engines!) came out looking pretty good... on paper.

I don't think any of the scaled designs ever flew although. The
engine-relative P-38 may have done so. All of Kelly Johnson's designs
scaled-down rather well.

-R.S.Hoover

From: "John Oliveira"


PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson"

The running gag at the tim was that the Cat had a take off speed of 100 kt,
cruise speed of 100kt and a stall speed of 100kt.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Dan

My good buddy (now deceased) who flew 'Cats', told me 90, 90, 90.

Big John (Out of the hospital and kind of back with the living)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```


On 10 Jun 2004 22:14:55 GMT, (B2431) wrote:

From: "John Oliveira"


PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson"

The running gag at the tim was that the Cat had a take off speed of 100 kt,
cruise speed of 100kt and a stall speed of 100kt.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

From: Big John
Date: 6/17/2004 2:49 PM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

Dan

My good buddy (now deceased) who flew 'Cats', told me 90, 90, 90.

Big John (Out of the hospital and kind of back with the living)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` ``


On 10 Jun 2004 22:14:55 GMT, (B2431) wrote:

From: "John Oliveira"


PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson"

The running gag at the tim was that the Cat had a take off speed of 100 kt,
cruise speed of 100kt and a stall speed of 100kt.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

I bow to his eperience.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Yea, I've herd that before... 90kts is best climb, best cruise speed
for range, and something else...

Big John wrote in message . ..
Dan

My good buddy (now deceased) who flew 'Cats', told me 90, 90, 90.

Big John (Out of the hospital and kind of back with the living)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```


On 10 Jun 2004 22:14:55 GMT, (B2431) wrote:

From: "John Oliveira"


PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson"

The running gag at the tim was that the Cat had a take off speed of 100 kt,
cruise speed of 100kt and a stall speed of 100kt.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Probably best single engine climb and best glide.

Maybe best approach speed, max gear extension, best speed for IMC, best
attack speed, max speed with any windows open?

"Tom Osmundson" wrote in message
om...
Yea, I've herd that before... 90kts is best climb, best cruise speed
for range, and something else...

Big John wrote in message
. ..
Dan

My good buddy (now deceased) who flew 'Cats', told me 90, 90, 90.

Big John (Out of the hospital and kind of back with the living)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```


On 10 Jun 2004 22:14:55 GMT, (B2431) wrote:

From: "John Oliveira"


PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that
did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson"

The running gag at the tim was that the Cat had a take off speed of 100
kt,
cruise speed of 100kt and a stall speed of 100kt.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 11:28:59 +0000, John Oliveira wrote:

PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!

You're kidding right? Many of the pre-WWII US warplanes did not have
flaps.

--
Kevin Horton RV-8 (finishing kit)
Ottawa, Canada
http://go.phpwebhosting.com/~khorton/rv8/
e-mail: khorton02(_at_)rogers(_dot_)com

The Naval Air Museum at NAS Pensacola they have a cutaway PBY fuselage.

It's made for midgets so a half scale may not do as much as you hope for.


Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired