Question for David Legg or PBY experts: Amphibian Airway's PBYs 1948 Burma

Future generations of PBY/aviation enthusiasts will be indebted to you for your excellent research. I just bought your book.

Thanks Farmgate – now rather out of date and the internet age has meant that much more info and some corrections have come to light, a classic example being the Catalina ‘245’ in those LIFE photos which seems to have come as a surprise to other researchers I know as well as myself! Perhaps an update will come out one day!

Longshot referred to the photo of the XY Dove. It seems to be XY-ABP of Burma Airways, c/n 04183, which crashed at Myaungmya on 23 April 1949.

Thanks David!

Future generations of PBY/aviation enthusiasts will be indebted to you for your excellent research. I just bought your book.

Firstly, thanks again ‘Farmgate’ and ‘Longshot’ for providing the links to these excellent photos. On the colour scheme, I consulted Martin Willing, ex-Cathay Pacific, who has done work on researching Far East Catalinas as part of his wider research into the history of Cathay. Although neither of us can be categoric, the thinking is that the scheme was light grey or silver tail over a marine grey or similar colour. Martin says that red is a ‘lucky colour’ in Asia and is quite probably the colour used on the Amphibian Airways nose logo.

What really intrigued me was the ‘245’ identity of the Catalina in most of the photos. Amphibian Airways had four ex-USAAF OA-10A Catalinas (XY-ABV, W, X and Y), all registered in Burma. Actually, XY-ABV’s previous identities have not been established but it is a reasonable bet that it too was an ex-USAAF OA-10A. Ironically, it is XY-ABV in the background of one of the photos of ‘245’ thus discounting any link between the two! My theory is that ‘245’ is actually PI-C245 and that Roy Farrell of Amhibian’ had it registered in the Philippines, either before or after it was registered in Burma. Air-Britain’s register covering the area published many years ago has a gap where PI-C245 would be!

To date, that’s it but any more thoughts/photos would be welcome!

The Google LIFE Archive is a puzzle…such a brilliant resource but so badly tagged and presented considering it’s run by the foremost search engine company
More PBY views
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=cc5187a7665229da
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=bd4c0edfb0120bd5
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=8264ec18ccf3f907

No, not at all.

My quick Google revealed an Amphibian Airways in NZ about that time. I had assumed the OP’s spelling was correct.

I’ll fix it if it is appropriate

Moggy

Well the Burmese Amphibian Airways pre-dates the NZ company of the same name which operated its first service in 1951.

Is this a PBY wing?
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=1b0869b40ad2e876

Yes it is a Catalina starboard wing and it shows that the airline’s name was carried underneath. Again, nice shot – thanks for posting.

Is this a PBY wing?
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=1b0869b40ad2e876

The story was published in Life with a PBY pic (but the collapse of China which Jack Birns also covered loomed larger)
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Vk4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=jack+birns+burma&hl=en&ei=P7LiTuKLCoGV8QOng5GDBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=jack%20birns%20burma&f=false

Finally, I am assuming that Moggy’s comment above is tongue in cheek but obviously the airline’s correct name was Amphibian Airways and not Amphibean etc.

No, not at all.

My quick Google revealed an Amphibian Airways in NZ about that time. I had assumed the OP’s spelling was correct.

I’ll fix it if it is appropriate

Moggy

Amphibean Airways operated in Burma 1948-1949 and used OV-10A’s/PBY’s converted to airliners according to your excellent book.

I just located a number of superb photos depicting two such aircraft c.1949 in Time-Life photo collections available on their online website. (Search “Burma” “1949”).

They appear to be in a two-tone scheme, with a medium grey lower hull and light grey upper.

One Catalina appears to have a red nose. Can you confirm whether they were grey on medium grey? Red nose?

Thank you in advance.

OK – I have now taken a look at these marvellous Catalina photos. What a fantastic surprise they are! Unfortunately, I have never previously seen any colour photos of any of the Burmese Catalinas so cannot confirm the livery although it would seem that the tail area is probably silver and the hull either a shade of gray or possibly even blue. There are two different Catalinas in the photos – one is XY-ABV and, thus far, I have not unearthed the previous identity of it although it was quite likely a former USAAF OA-10A (not OV-10A as mis-quoted above). However, what really intrigues me is the second aircraft marked simply as ‘245’. I have never come across this aircraft before. The three numbers do not correspond with the ‘last three’ of any USAAF OA-10As so I need to do some more digging and consult colleagues who know more about the region than I. At this stage I am guessing that ‘245’ is one of the other aircraft operated by Amphibian Airways (XY-ABW, -ABX and -ABY). If I find out more, I’ll put it on this forum. Incidentally, one of the colour photos of ‘245’ has been reversed before being placed on the LIFE photo site.

Finally, I am assuming that Moggy’s comment above is tongue in cheek but obviously the airline’s correct name was Amphibian Airways and not Amphibean etc.

Burma Birns brings in the (badly faded) colour shots
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=a2ad6e847d1ff4d0
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=dda29f44bde831c0
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=d6098b31c5d300cd#

and black and white shots
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=31d91ca40a11735e
and
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=46bcdcc4444b249f
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=1d216060d35d9568
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=f0e34635f3d7cee1
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=07d22a8bf060887c
amphibian airways titling
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=07680bec8d0d8606

Birns himself?
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=234e7b959e95d6a1

and an XY-Dove
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=54e6136dc3e8a957

plus C-47s 🙂
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=2a97f42b0c5f7e47

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=7afa4c2c7d0aeff5
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=cf24b6d5dc41be5c

searching the Google LIFE photos always does my head in
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=9f3a97fed8fea7c3

Amphibean Airways operated in Burma 1948-1949 and used OV-10A’s/PBY’s converted to airliners according to your excellent book.

I just located a number of superb photos depicting two such aircraft c.1949 in Time-Life photo collections available on their online website. (Search “Burma” “1949”).

They appear to be in a two-tone scheme, with a medium grey lower hull and light grey upper.

One Catalina appears to have a red nose. Can you confirm whether they were grey on medium grey? Red nose?

Thank you in advance.

Farmgate – sorry to be a pain but can you e-mail me the link as thus far I have not been able to locate the photos you refer to. Thanks.

[email]pby5@btinternet.com[/email]

Was it spelled with the ‘e’ to avoid confusion / legal issues with the New Zealand company “Amphibian Airways”?

Moggy