80 Years, a Tribute to the PBY Catalina. The ultimate color photo album of the best flying boat ever made

80 years, a tribute to the PBY Catalina depicts over 400 of the best images from the PBY Catalina over the type's full lifespan of 80 years. Including the author's own impressive collection taken during two transatlantic crossings (for the 8-part 'Catalina Odyssey' TV-documentary series). It also features a wealth of photographs from private family albums and professional photographers from all over the world ? many of them never published before. Additionally, the Smithsonian Institution and other leading aviation museums, plus many Catalina/Canso operators from the USA, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK have supplied rare images from their WWII photographic collections, or of their aircraft on static display or still flying.

About the Author

Hans Wiesman (author of 'The Dakota Hunter' book & blogs) traces his profound passion for the DC-3/Dakota and the PBY Catalina back to the age of five. Between the years 1951?1956 he lived in the Borneo Jungle and he flew in both aircraft with his father, a Shell oil exploration engineer. Hans' love affair with these aircraft has never faded and later in his career, being a Creative executive for an International Brand, he met the PBY Catalina again and created a TV documentary series with that legendary aircraft as being the image-carrier. It brought him another 250 flight hours with the PBY and a wealth of unique experiences and photographs on his double Transamerican tours.  With only a few PBY Cansos/Catalinas now left in airworthy condition, the saga told and depicted in this book is his heartfelt personal and colorful tribute to this iconic aircraft.