VH-ASA
(2)
Boeing PB2B-2
Catalina
(c/n 61154)
On
March 14, 1951 noted Australian aviator P.G.Taylor and crew flew
Catalina VH-ASA named
'Frigate Bird II' on a proving
flight from Australia to Chile. Take off was effected from
the Rose Bay
Flying Boat Base on Sydney Harbor
with stops in Noumea,
Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Mang-
areva and
Easter Island. The aircraft returned on 20 April 1951
alighting at Brisbane. The aircraft
was a stock RAAF machine (A24-385) taken
from the inventory at Rathmines base where these
historic
photographs by Bob Stewart (via Daryl Meek) were taken. Upon
its
return it went back into
storage at
Rathmines and was eventually withdrawn from use in 1954.
It is still in one piece and is
suspended from the ceiling of the
Powerhouse Museum in Sydney’s Ultimo. P.G. Taylor donated the
aircraft to the Museum of Applied
Arts and Science in 1961, by which time it was stored in the back
of the Ansett
hangar at the Rose Bay flying boat base (see photo by Dave Carter at
foot of the page)
taken in 1969). It had been
forced to move from Rathmines in 1956 when that base closed, and was
dismantled
for the trip to Sydney.
