The PB2Y Coronado was a large flying boat patrol bomber designed by Consolidated Aircraft. After deliveries of the PBY Catalina, also a Consolidated aircraft, began in 1935, the United States Navy began planning for the next generation of patrol bombers. Orders for two prototypes, the XPB2Y-1 and the Sikorsky XPBS-1, were placed in 1936; the prototype Coronado first flew in December 1937. After trials with the XPB2Y-1 prototype revealed some stability issues, the design was finalized as the PB2Y-2, with a large cantilever wing, twin tail, and four Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engines. The two inner engines were fitted with four-bladed reversible pitch propellers; the outer engines had standard three-bladed feathering props. Like the PBY Catalina before it, the PB2Y's wingtip floats retracted to reduce drag and increase range.
The PB2Y Coronado was a large flying boat patrol bomber designed and built by the Consolidated Aircraft Co., San Diego, CA, and used by the US Navy during World War II in bombing, antisubmarine and transport roles. Of the 217 built, ten were provided to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) serving with the RAF Transport Command. Four were transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard base located in San Francisco, CA. Coronados also served as a major component in the Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) during World War II in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, being flown by Pan American Airways (Pan Am) and American Export Airlines, Inc. Obsolete by the end of the war, Coronados were quickly taken out of service. Only one example remains and can be seen at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida. Each of the 217 Coronado Bureau Numbers (BuNos) is represented by some piece of its history within this book.
In August 1940, the Luftwaffe began an operation to destroy or neutralize RAF Fighter Command, and enable Hitler to invade Britain that autumn. It was a new type of air warfare: the first ever offensive counter-air campaign against an integrated air defence system. Powerful, combat-proven and previously all-conquering, the German air force had the means to win the Battle of Britain. Yet it did not. This book is an original, rigorous campaign study of the Luftwaffe's Operation Adlerangriff, researched in Germany's World War II archives and using the most accurate data available. Doug Dildy explains the capabilities of both sides, sets the campaign in context, and argues persuasively that it was the Luftwaffe's own mistakes and failures that led to its defeat, and kept alive the Allies' chance to ultimately defeat Nazi Germany.
Curtiss Model 98 XBTC-2 was designed because of a request for a single seat dive/torpedo bomber in 1942. A Wright R 3350 with a four bladed prop should power the -1, a P&W R-4360 with 3-bladed contra props the -2. Work on both variants was slow, to other commitments and stability problems were encountered during wind tunnel testing. The -2 was first flown on January 20 1945, and all work on the -1 was terminated after 1943. The crash of the first prototype in February 1947, and of the second in August 1947, ended the development. March 1945, the Navy ordered 10 relatively minor derivatives of the XBTC-2. They had 2,500-horsepower Wright R-3350-4 engines turning single-rotation propellers. Progress was faster on this model, and the first flight was made in January 1946. Gross weight was 19,072 pounds, and max speed was 297 mph at sea level and 330 mph at 17,000 feet. Armament was two 20mm cannon, eight five-inch rockets and one 2,000-pound bomb or a torpedo.
A tale of a lifelong passion for a WWII aircraft that changed the author’s life: “It is almost like an adventure novel except it is true” (Air Classics). This book tells the story of a Dutch boy who grew up during the 1950s in postwar Borneo, where he had frequent encounters with an airplane, the Douglas DC-3, a.k.a. the C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, of World War II fame. For a young boy living in a remote jungle community, the aircraft reached the proportions of a romantic icon as the essential lifeline to a bigger world for him, the beginning of a special bond. In 1957, his family left the island and all its residual wreckage of World War II, and he attended college in The Hague. After graduation, he started a career as a corporate executive—and met the aircraft again during business trips to the Americas. His childhood passion for the Dakota flared up anew, and the fascination pulled like a magnet. As if predestined, or maybe just looking for an excuse to come closer, he began a business to salvage and convert Dakota parts, which meant first of all finding them. As the demand for these war relic parts and cockpits soared, he began to travel the world to track down surplus, crashed, or derelict Dakotas. He ventured deeper and deeper into remote mountains, jungles, savannas, and the seas where the planes are found, usually as ghostly wrecks but sometimes still in full commercial operation. In hunting the mythical Dakota, he often encountered intimidating or dicey situations in countries plagued by wars or revolts, others by arms and narcotics trafficking, warlords, and conmen. The stories of these expeditions take the reader to some of the remotest spots in the world, but once there, one is often greeted by the comfort of what was once the West’s apex in transportation—however now haunted by the courageous airmen of the past.
"To win in the Pacific during World War II, the U.S. Navy had to transform itself technically, tactically, and strategically. It had to create a fleet capable of the unprecedented feat of fighting and winning far from home, without existing bases, in the face of an enemy with numerous bases fighting in his own waters. Much of the credit for the transformation should go to the war gaming conducted at the U.S. Naval War College. Conversely, as we face further demands for transformation, the inter-war experience at the War College offers valuable guidance as to what works, and why, and how."
The PB2Y Coronados-massive, four-engine seaplanes known as the Big Flying Boats-were the ride of choice for dignitaries in the Pacific during WWII. A Coronado flew Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to view the damage suffered by the Pacific Fleet after Pearl Harbor. Admiral Chester Nimitz flew in one to Japan in August 1945 for the signing of the peace treaty. But in the Pacific Theatre, where Naval aviation was the ultimate weapon, the Big Flying Boats were more than just comfortable rides for VIPs. They flew and fought in the heart of the conflict, from Hawaii to the Philippines to Japan. Here, the pilots of the U.S. Navy Squadron 13 Coronados relate their wartime exploits in their own words.
The focus of this thesis is the further study of both pre- and post-depositional site formation processes that affect submerged WWII aircraft, specifically an unidentified US Navy Consolidated PB2Y Coronado flying boat in Tanapag Lagoon, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The study of submerged aircraft is a relatively recent field of study in maritime archaeology. With the inclusion of aircraft in the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004, these studies have become increasingly more important to stakeholders such as the US Navy. Site formation process studies stipulate that a crucial aspect of the accurate interpretation of a site first requires a thorough understanding of the processes that create and subsequently alter the site. For terrestrial archaeologists, as well as those maritime archaeologists studying shipwreck sites, a database of this knowledge exists. For submerged aircraft, however, this database is incomplete. This thesis will contribute to the overall understanding and interpretation of submerged aircraft sites through the studies of the processes that created and subsequently affected the Tanapag Lagoon PB2Y Coronado site. Archaeological and historical evidence will be examined to identify the specific aircraft, determine its cause of crash, and understand any cultural or natural factors that may have affected the site. This will contribute further information about site formation processes on three different levels: specific (Consolidated PB2Y Coronado), general (flying boats), and broad (wreck type and artifact distribution). Further, this information will be used to identify management challenges specific to this site, and offer solutions to those challenges. The management issues and solutions, as well as a completed application for the National Register of Historic Places, will be turned over to the relevant stakeholders. This will assist in the proper protection and management of not only this specific site, but will also be applicable to other submerged aircraft sites throughout the Pacific in particular and the world in general.
