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Bird Innovator: an Executive Flying Boat Based on a WWII Icon With Two Extra Engines

The Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat is an airplane that needs no introduction. It may not have the appeal of a Hellcat or a Corsair, but the people who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II will tell you it was the Catalina, not any fighter, that was the most important Navy plane of the war. So then, how do you improve on perfection?
Bird Innovator 7 photos
Photo: Geoff Goodall
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Well, suppose you're the ingenious American inventor Robert Bird. In that case, you slap two more engines on the wing tips and market it like the quaint private executive flying boat for a different breed of eccentric millionaire. One that appealed in a way a Gulfstream or a Learjet never could. A leisure airplane for people who prefer getting around in style rather than getting there quickly.

For those who don't have a definite knowledge of every World War II American military plane, the PBY was the brains behind the Hellcat and Corsair's muscle. A slow, deliberate flying machine that appears to be little more than a ship with a slab for wings mounted over the top.

With twin Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines on tap, the PBY could cruise at a pedestrian 125 miles per hour (201 kph) while dropping bombs, doing reconnaissance, or retrieving downed Navy airmen in the water. In service with the armed forces of the U.S., Great Britain, French Rebels, Canada, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, and even Japan for a time after the war, nearly all who flew the Catalina raved about how flying it was like sitting in your mother's lap.

This gracefulness is all in spite of how slow, ungainly, and downright sluggish it may seem with an outsider's eyes. That's not counting the type's considerable service as a firefighting aircraft or commercial airliner. But throughout this considerable resume, Catalina's often operated in much the same configuration as the day they left the factory. There were a few obligatory turboprop conversions, which is befitting any vintage multi-engine warplane. Many DC-3s and C-47s had the same treatment over the years.

Bird Innovator
Photo: Andy Martin
But in terms of sheer ambition, it's hard to beat what a Massachusetts-native inventor, engineer, and card-carrying aviation nut Forrest Bird managed to do to a rickety old Catalina. Though he sadly passed away in 2015, Bird was nearly universally respected in the field of engineering in his time.

This is largely thanks to his design of the first mechanical breathing ventilator capable of mass production in the United States. Released in 1955, Bird's design came a full 65 years before the current global health crisis necessitated the rapid production of millions of units using similar operating principles.

On those merits alone, Forrest Bird is already an American hero. But his success in the biomedical engineering business allowed him to indulge in his lifelong love of flying during his time away from the office. Bird first flew an airplane solo at the age of just 14.

He was the kind of person who knew from experience that the best solution to lots of aeronautical problems is to add more power. Once he'd acquired a surplus Catalina from heaven knows where, he set about turning this twin-engine flying boat into a quad-engine executive transport flying boat far more capable than before.

Bird Innovator
Photo: San Diego Air and Space Museum archive
Of course, the most striking aspect of the Bird Innovator's design is the two extra engines mounted three-quarters down from either ring root. Said engines are Lycoming GSO-480-B2D6 six-cylinder, air-cooled piston engines jetting an extra 340 horsepower each for a total of 680 more total. Granted, the aesthetic of an airplane with two different pairs of engines might be a little strange.

But with new performance figures like a cruising speed of 230 mph and a similar service ceiling, the Innovator helped take the Catalina platform to its absolute zenith. Though it was intended as an executive pleasure yacht in the sky, the Innovator was similarly suited for the same search, rescue, and observation missions that made its forbearers so iconic.

After being sold in 1976, the aircraft was fitted with cameras meant to log whale populations and activities along the American west coast. Afterward, the Bird Innovator spent time in Florida, New Mexico, and again in Florida. In 1997, inspections found improper repairs stemming from an emergency gear-up landing.

It was then decided that the best course of action was to remove the two extra engines and restore the plane to its Catalina configuration. Thus ends the story of the ultimate Catalina with little more than a whimper. Only proving once again that a really cool design doesn't always translate into sales success.

Bird Innovator
Photo: Geoff Goodall
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