Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander
Assuming that Kessler has access to a Short S.25 Sandringham*, what, if anything, would be the utility of a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina aircraft for him?
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Conveniently, both aircraft have been run on the R-1830 Twin Wasp (sfc 0.49 lb/(hp•h)) at 1200hp, so that makes the calculation easier; each engine burns about 588lb of fuel per hour. But the Sandringham has two more engines, so it's burning an extra 1176lb every hour.
The Sandringham's faster cruise speed compensates a bit; the Sandringham is burning 1335lb of fuel per 100 miles while the Cat gets away with 941.
The Sandringham also has a higher wing load (35.6 vs 25.3 lb/ft²) – so slightly lower manoeuvreability, slightly higher stall speed, slightly longer takeoff and landing runs. In a tactical context that may make a difference.
Moving away from hard data, Cats have a reputation for solidity and reliability whereas the various Short flying-boats don't; on the other hand in the real world there are three surviving Sandringhams out of 51, none flyable but that's about 6%, versus 80 surviving Cats including 20 flyable out of 3305, about 2.5%.
(And of course if you want spare parts for a Cat
now it has the advantage that there are 19 other flying Cats out there and that's enough to make it worth someone's while to build them.)