<a name="Article8" id="Article8" class="Article_title"Kendall Family’s PBYs

Spring 2025, Vol. 70, No. 1 – The PBY’s of the Kendall Family

[While we strive for accuracy in our publications, to a large degree we rely on the authors to have thoroughly research their topics. Even then, we all sometimes get it wrong. The AAHS has always published corrections and updates to articles when new information (or corrections) come to light. Therefore, we appreciate the time and effort taken when someone brings this information to our attention. The following is a response from David Legg, of the Catalina Society and editor of the "Catalina News". We are grateful that he has taken the time to point to errors and provide update information for this story.]

I have just had the opportunity of seeing Jerri Bergen’s article The PBY’s of the Kendall Family in the Spring 2025 edition of the AAHS Journal. There was some very good background information in the article that went beyond the "nuts and bolts" data. In particular, I appreciated the very interesting coverage of the background to the Kendall family and the use of PBY-5A N5590V in the Pacific during the 1960s.

I do have some observations but also, as I am named as a source, some corrections where I have been mis-quoted in several instances, in particular in the Kendall PBYs table.

• Page 3, left hand column – the author quotes Roscoe Creed as stating that the PBY-5A was produced in the largest numbers ("well over 1,000") and stating the source as Creed’s book on page 44. I cannot find that Creed says that – certainly not on that page. The total production of the PBY-5A was actually 803. If other amphibians are included – the PBY-6A and license production of Canso As and OA-10As – then the total does exceed 1,000
• Page 7, right hand column – Croyden should read Croydon
• Page 8 top left photo caption and page 12 right hand photo caption – registration suffix ’V’ missing
• Page 12, right hand column – the Line Islands Experiment section quotes The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). That may well be the case but the registered owner of N5590V at the time was the International Center for Environmental Research Inc (per FAA Registration file for N5590V). [Editor’s note: There is no mention of the registered owner at the time. Mearly that Bob Kendall’s research company, Landaire, Ltd, was approved and Kendall provided the PBY-5A]
• Page 15 right hand column – contemporary reports suggest the date that N5590V was towed through the streets to the San Diego museum was August 6, 1988, not September 3.
• Page 15 and 16 – notes 31 and 32 do not appear in the list of Endnotes on page 16. (Inadvertently clipped in layout)
• 31 – San Diego Air and Space Museum.
• 32 – Kendall family conversation notes 2024.

Then to the Kendall PBYs table on page 18 where I am quoted as a main source (my 2002 book "Consolidated PBY Catalina&quo – the peacetime record"). I am misquoted in a number of instances.

• Re N5586V – year of sale to Steward-Davis was 1964, not 1966 (my book said circa1966 but is now known to have been July 21, 1964 (Bill of Sale).
• Re N5587V – date of sale to Steward-Davis of 1955 is a mis-quote from my book which reads circa 1966. The exact date is now known to have been July 21, 1964.
• Re N5585V – the quoted BuNo of 98101 is a mis-quote and should read BuNo 08101. This Catalina did not crash in 1975 at Turin as stated (again a mis-quote) but at Wikieup, Ariz., on February 6, 1975 as stated in my book.
• Re N5590V – the recipient was the San Diego Aerospace Museum as correctly shown in my book, not the San Diego Air and Space Museum although it is now known by the latter name of course.
• Re N5591V – this was the Catalina destroyed at Turin on Ma 21, 1989 as per my book, not N5588V
• Re N5593V – the BuNo has been mis-quoted and should read BuNo 48397, not BuNo 48367

 

Regarding N5592V and N5595V, the disposal date to Steward-Davis is now known to have been July 21, 1964

David Legg
Editor: The Catalina News, The Catalina Society

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