VP-73 Aircraft
Consolidated PBY Catalina
AIRCRAFT: VP-73 PBY BUNO: 73-P-10 "...Riding at mooring buoy in Argentia Bay - NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, Canada - Circa 1945..." Official U. S. Navy Photograph [16DEC2012]
AIRCRAFT: VP-73 PBY BUNO: 48423 "...Super Catalina Restoration WebSite: http://www.supercatalina.com/..." [08FEB2003]
A Brief History of N423RS Bu 48423 c/n 1785
Built in 1943 at Consolidated's San Diego plant it was accepted by and delivered to the US Navy on 8 January 1944. It was assigned to VPB-73 at NAS Floyd Bennett Field, New York. With the European war over VPB-73 moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico in May 1945 to fly Dumbo missions for redeploying AAF units, returning to Norfolk in January 1946. 48423 remained with the squadron until November 1945 when it was transferred to Hedron FAW-1 followed by Hedron FAW-5 still based at Norfolk. From February 1946 to May 1945 the plane underwent reconditioning at NAF Philadelphia after which it was placed in storage. It joined the pool of available aircraft at Norfolk until 29 July 1956 when it was retired and stricken off the Navy's list - its total flying time at this point was 1202 hours.
The history of this aircraft become a little thin at this point (for a few years) the only know fact is that it was allocated the registration N4002A. Since the Mid 1960's however its history has been better recorded. It was owned and operated by a number of Canadian survey companies such as Canadian Aero Service, Spartan air Services and finally Kenting Earth Science carrying the registration CF-FJG. It remained with Kenting for some 22 years until 1986 when it was retired and flown to Reno for storage. It then passed through several owners/companies before Dr R Slade of Northern Air Inc, Dallas became the owner.
In 1997 it was acquired by Catalina Angels Ltd of Galesburg, Illinois and was repainted in the colours of its new user - Greenpeace. It was used by Greenpeace as a reconnaissance platform for general pollution watching activities.
In September 1998 N423RS was flown to Duxford in preparation for its return to the USA. It was however later decided to retain the Catalina at Duxford whilst options on its future were considered.
It was purchased by Super Catalina Restoration in May 2001 from Greenpeace.
We would be very interested to hear from anybody who has further information regarding the history of this Aircraft.
Copyright- David Legg: Editor, The Catalina News http://www.supercatalina.com/gphistory.htm
AIRCRAFT: VP-73 PBY BUNO: Unknown "...A U.S. Navy Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina aircraft from Patrol Squadron VP-73 returning to Keflavik, Iceland, in early 1942..." WebSite: U.S. Navy Naval History Center http://www.history.navy.mil/ [03MAR2012]
"VP-73 Summary Page"
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