PBY was only US warplane (not counting single engine observation) that did
not have flaps!
"Tom Osmundson" wrote in message
m...
I was wondering if anyone else was designing (or maybe even progressed
to building) a homebuilt aircraft based on the PBY Catalina? The
reason I ask is that I have been thinking of designing one for some
time. Now that I have 1 year to go before finishing my BS in ME, I
have decided to begin working on a conceptual design.
Hopefulley I'll get around to posting some of my newer PBY stuff on my
website before too long.

I'd like to see what you guys (and gals) think of my idea. Basically I
want an adventure/bush/recreational aircraft. There are a lot of
single engine amphibs out there around 100-200hp, so I'm not going to
design something that basically already exists. What I want these
aircraft wouldn't be able to do anyway. I am looking to build
something where there is nothing very similar to it. It would be
similar size to a Widgeon, but how many of those do you see around.
I'd like to see a C185 or Beaver owner consider buying one of these. I
also don't want to go through the nosebleed the seawind went through
(basically design/build it right the first time and no BS).

I won't be building everything exactly to scale, and it will be made
of mostly composite materials (glass, CF, some kevlar, foam/balsa,
epoxy). You could call it an evolution of a PBY-6A with the R-2600
conversion. I have narrowed down the size that I am going to build.
50% scale. This puts us at 52' WS and 4750 gross, and a pair of
160-200 hp engines. My minimum goals (on 200 hp) are 2000 lbs useful
load, stall w/flaps 49 mph, 75% cruise 167 mph, takeoff from water in
under 900 feet, and have a 1500 statute mile range. I want this
aircraft to be affordable to build and operate (not RV-4 affordable,
but affordable for its size). So far my powerplant of choice is the
deltahawk diesel (although one could put whatever they wanted in for
an engine, many choices around 160-200 hp). A pair of 200hp diesels
would give this PBY the same fuel burn that a 300hp lycoming would
(about 14-16 gph). That's it in a nutshell. Whatchya think? Sound
cool?