The WWII Flying Home With a Kitchen and Bar - PBY Catalina ‘Landseaire'

In the 1950s, The Landseaire was the ultimate go-anywhere adventure machine. Based on a sturdy WWII-era PBY Catalina flying boat and fitted with beds, bathrooms, kitchens and even deployable boats, they were a long-range home in the sky like no other. But what happened? Where did they go and for one family, how did it all end so tragically?

Dave kindly allowed me to use the photos he uncovered and his research was invaluable!

00:00 - Introduction
01:47 - Visiting a PBY Catalina
03:43 - Origins of the Consolidated PBY Catalina
04:34 - Design & War Service
05:57 - The Original Landseaire
09:12 - What Happened to the Original Landseaire?
10:01 - The Kenndals Landseaire
10:45 - Kenndals Round-The-World-Trip
11:42 - A Near-Death Escape
14:44 - Remains of the Kenndal Landseaire
15:31 - Where Are They Now?

[Gator-]

My grandpa had a PBY when I was a kid in Loxahatchee, FLA. We used it to camp in and used to fly to Puerto Rico and the carribean on weekends. It was some fun times.

[SolarusD]

5:14 I'm sure you meant 14 cylinders there. Also the PBY used the twin-row Twin Wasp engine, the Wasp was only a single-row 9 cylinder engine.

[foo-foocuddlypoops]

So that's homes on wheels, tracks, rotor blades and floating wings. Can't wait for your coverage of whatever weird space rocket home some madman eventually cooks up :D

[ChrisAmelung]

My grandfather flew the PBY during the war as part of the US Navy 3rd Emergency Rescue Squadron. He was part of a small group of Army Air Corps pilots that were loaned to the Navy to fly PBYs because the Navy didn’t have enough multi-engine trained pilots. They hold the distinction of earning both Army and Navy wings.

Thank you for this amazing video and story. He would have loved seeing on of the “old girls” getting a makeover.

[andyjohnson]

Great one, Calum. Last PBY I saw was the one that killed my mayor, 24 years ago. I heard about a failed water landing on the radio and went down to watch it on the way home, not knowing at the time that the mayor of Southampton had been killed. I’d gone along to look as I knew my parents had spent a day trip to Le Touquet on that exact aircraft a couple of years earlier when members of its supporting ‘Catalina Society’.

[vonskyme]

I've always loved the idea of vehicles with something you can call 'living quarters' (not just a bunk behind a cab) where you wouldn't really expect. Planes, landcrawlers etc. Something post-apocalyptic about them.

[marksamuelsen]

Many years ago I lived in Hawaii on Oahu. I saw a PBY Catalina sitting on the ramp at HNL airport next to the CAP Hangar. I was a member of the CAP. An old retired USAF pilot was authorized to fly this aircraft and him and I flew from HNL-ITO(Hilo) back. I was thrilled and now I'm 71yo and it still is a great memory for me. I may not remember what I did yesterday but that memory is still alive in my brain.

[Martinos]

Sweet baby jesus! Calum! I have been dreaming about what it would be like to own a Catalina camper plane since I first saw a Catalina in a Flying Tigers comic when I was a kid. This right here is the video I'd forgotten I desperately wanted. Thank you!

[oocombz]

Honestly the PBY will always be my favorite aircraft. I remember playing COD WAW and when the level "Blackcats" came on I was hooked. If I had a major excess of money I'd buy one and learn to fly it.

[CalumRaasay]

This is sort of a 'spirtual sequel' to my recent helihome video, so I thought I'd keep the same kind of theme and style going, hope you enjoy! What do you think would be the best aircraft to turn into a flying home? I think the Catalina is hard to beat!

[ElricX]

I built a model of Jacques Cousteau's PBY as a kid and fell in love with them. Owning one would've been amazing!

[daniilashtaev]

Ahh, your videos, from the quality research to the fascinating storytelling, are just incredible. Thank you, Calum!

[Jon.A.Scholt]

These "Flying Vacation Homes" always remind me of the Millennium Falcon, though I'm sure the Falcon had "roomier" quarters. Just the idea of being able to live and travel around to who-knows-where. The kid in me can't help but love the adventure vibes it gives off.
BTW, just found this channel, great video; it made me a sub

[plantfeeder]

Before I watch this I have to confess that owning my own PBY, converting it into a flying house, and flying all throughout the south pacific has been a dream of mine since I was a kid in the 1950s.

[zolotiyeruki]

I don't know if it was an original Landseaire, but just last week, a PBY yacht flew into Oshkosh WI for EAA Airventure, and I got a chance to crawl all over the inside of it. The lounge at the back with the huge lexan bubble window is particularly awesome.

[proto]

That father is a goddamned HERO, crawling to the controls, shot and bleeding out, starting the plane and getting his family to safety.

[Yuki_Ika]

my great grandpa Carroll Burgess Jones won the distinguished flying cross and the Navy cross for commanding a PBY Catalina squadron in WW2, i am glad to see that these beautiful machines get use after the war too (sad to see many of their fates though)!

[alfnoakes]

Excellent video on a Catalina development I had no idea existed. We still have a flying PBY-5 here in New Zealand, based at Ardmore, south of Auckland. Lovely old girl, I have been up in her a couple of times. The hull of a PBY which was 'parts donor' for her ended up down at Classic Flyers in Tauranga, and over a decade ago I was one of the volunteers who dissembled the rear-most part of the fuselage to create an indoor exhibit ... it was quite surreal drilling out all those 1/8" rivets (with the perished remains of rubberised canvas sealing the joints between plates) and thinking this was a Real Catalina I was working on, not the Airfix kit of one which as a kid I had thought was the nearest I would ever get to the real thing.

[Atreids]

9:44 "Tuckson" Arizona made me giggle. It's pronounced "Too-sahn." Great video! How amazing it would be to have a luxury converted PBY Catalina, not to mention how awesome it would be to have an old war bird like this period!

[whyjnot]

Just to point one little thing out... the step in the hull is specifically designed to make takeoff easier. Simply put a flying boat wants to stay on the water, that step in the hull lessens this by a lot, making it far easier to takeoff from water. This is why it is a staple of hull design in flying boats.