CONSOLIDATED OA-10A CATALINA

One of the exhibits at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, is a Consolidated OA-10A Catalina flying boat. The OA-10A designation refers to the PBY-5A Catalina aircraft used by the USAAF for maritime rescue operations, recovering crews lost at sea.

CONSOLIDATED OA-10A CATALINA

CONSOLIDATED

OA-10A CATALINA

One of the exhibits at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

in Dayton, Ohio, is a Consolidated OA-10A Catalina flying boat. The OA-10A

designation refers to the PBY-5A Catalina aircraft used by the USAAF for

maritime rescue operations, recovering crews lost at sea. In August 1943,

the USAAF established seven Emergency Rescue Squadrons (ERS), all

of which operated in the Pacific Ocean region. One of these was the 2

nd

ERS, which operated in the area around the island of New Guinea from

the summer of 1944 and later in the Philippines. The Dayton museum‘s

exhibit is painted in the livery of one of this unit‘s aircraft: a Catalina

with the serial number 44-33879, named the ‚Snafu Snatchers‘, which

was based at Dipolog Air Base in the Philippines in 1945. However, the

museum‘s aircraft is not the original 44-33879. Instead, it is a Catalina

originally from Brazil, which served in the Brazilian Air Force until 1981

before being flown to Dayton in 1984. The photograph was taken

in August 2026 by Alfred Riedel.

Text: Vladimír Šulc

Photo: Alfred Riedel

INFO Eduard12

September 2026