Mr Dulhunty said the Catalina in Portugal was one of the last made by Consolidated and was originally called Manutara II.
Ironically, this translates as Frigate Bird II, the same name as the Catalina flown by Australian aviation pioneer P.G. Taylor.
Not really sure about this translation; Manutara in Rapa-Nui language (the one spoken at Easter Island) means ‘bird of luck’ (pájaro de suerte para los hispanohablantes :p ) and is also a tern that lives there.
It went to Chile, where it was put into storage before it was converted to a fire bomber in Canada, returned to Chile and ended back in storage.
It was then leased to Aerocondor in Portugal before the company lost its contract about seven years ago.
my records indicate the aircraft was stored in the US until the mid-1950s, being acquired by a Chilean airline -TRANSA Chile-, which operated the other Cat they bought -that aircraft is currently registered VH-PBZ-. After TRANSA went bankrupt the PBY-6A was acquired by Roberto Parragué, who finished the transformation from Military condition to civil standards and operated the aircraft (registered CC-CNP) from 1960 onwards to various places in Chile.
CC-CNP flew to Easter Island on 1961, 1963 and 1965, the latter year the crew reach Tahiti. In 1969 was transformed to water bomber by Field aviation of Canada, returning to Chile the following year. In this guise it was operated until 1989 -also participating on fire fighting duties in Argentina in the 1980s decade- when it was flown to Spain.
We will miss the presence of this historic aircraft in Chile, but we are sure that it will be kept in excellent conditions in its new home.
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