Catalina off to Israel

摘要

Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina N285RA left Beauvais airport in northern France on the back of low-loader in late February. Owned by the Israeli Air Force Museum, the amphibian had arrived at Beauvais on May 28, 2004, with engine trouble, not long after leaving North Weald in Essex for the ferry flight to Hatzerim Air Base.rnThe PBY still wears the fire-bombing colours of its last commercial operator, Avalon Aviation in Ontario, Canada. Acquired by Doug Arnold's Warbirds of Great Britain organisation in 1990 and registered G-BPFY, it then spent several years locked in a hangar at Biggin Hill before being ferried to North Weald in August 1996, where it gently mouldered away until its revival in 2004.