PBY-5A Canso, also known as Catalina, is owned and operated as a fire-fighting water bomber, Tanker 714, by Buffalo Air out of Yellow-knife, NWT, Canada. The photo was taken at Red Deer Industrial Airport [CYQF].

The original PBY was a true sea plane with no landing gear and was primarily a long-distance patrol aircraft. These planes were sub-sequently upgraded to include a retractable gear system, thus becoming an amphibian, able to land on land or water. Cansos were also used for anti-submarine patrol and have actually sunk German U-boats. Flt. Lt. David E. Hornell, V.C., RCAF, won the Victoria Cross, the highest award possible in Canada, while doing so June 24, 1944. His medal was awarded posthumously.

Link: www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/citations/hornell

Fred Paget, photographer