A period photograph provides an interior view of the cockpit of a PBY Catalina. The control wheels were connected to a control yoke that could be pulled back or pushed forward to operate the elevators. Rudder pedals were connected to control cables extending the length of the aircraft to operate the tail surfaces. The engine throttles were located overhead between the two pilots.

PBYs operated over wide expanses of open ocean with no land in sight. Thus, the navigator and radioman held important jobs on the airplane. Interestingly, part of the radioman’s equipment was a trailing antenna that could be manually released to lengths of 210 ft. to increase the range of communications. When Catalinas were equipped with radar, which was particularly important for those PBYs of so-called Black Cat squadrons that operated at night in the South Pacific, the operator occupied this compartment.

The flight engineer sat in a noisy position, the wing pylon that was close to the engines. Pilots communicated with him by interphone. In addition, the engineer’s compartment featured nine signal lights, each signifying a different function like “RAISE FLOATS” or “STOP ENGINES.” The pilot could direct the engineer to perform any one of these nine tasks by switching one of the lights on. Windows to either side of the engineer allowed him  to visually observe the engines and wingtip floats.

Sitting in his wing pylon station with his feet hanging down, the flight engineer had a prime spot from which to smell what was cooking in the small galley on the PBY. Keep in mind that the Catalina was a flying boat designed to patrol over great distances, the time in the air on missions lasting over ten hours and covering hundreds of miles. On these flights, coffee was literally and figuratively a hot commodity, particularly for those PBY crews operating from bases in the Aleutian Islands or on patrols over the North Atlantic. Also housed in the galley was a generator to provide electricity when the engines were not running and a desalination unit to provide fresh water for the crew. Operating in rustic forward bases in the South Pacific at certain times during the war, some PBY crews had to live aboard their planes for short periods of time, which made the galley all the more valuable. Note the parachutes hanging in the compartment within easy reach in the event of an emergency and the ramp on which members of the crew could wall though the fuselage compartments.