Unidentified Flying Boat

October 7, 2009 11:07 PM

AircraftFilter: Help me identify the aircraft in this photo

I looked entirely through my copy of The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft and found a couple that have a similar fuselage, wing placement, and tail section but they are quite obviously not the plane in the photo.

I did a quick search for airplane spotter / identification forums and couldn't find anything that looks all that good. I'll try posting to airliners.net or contacting an aircraft site owner (e.g. www.aviastar.org) but I figured I'd try here first to see if anyone knows; thanks!

posted by renovatio1 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (7 comments total)

PB2Y Coronado
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:15 PM on October 7

That's a Boeing 314, made famous as the Pam-Am seaplane.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:17 PM on October 7

Actually, I'm not sure that's right. Your plane's tail isn't cambered and the nose on yours is longer.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:17 PM on October 7

(I was following up my own post, not contradicting CPB.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:19 PM on October 7

It's definitely a Boeing 314.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:24 PM on October 7

Here's an article with the photo.
posted by arzakh at 2:00 AM on October 8

This is, to me, unqualified proof that the Metafilter community is THE overall single best resource on the entire internet.

As for me, I need to brush up on basic aircraft identification since the Boeing 314 does show up in the encyclopedia (but the photo there is mirrored and shows the plane at a different angle so that it's harder to make out the features while skimming -- so I missed it).

There is no 'best answer' here: thank you all very much for your prompt responses.
posted by renovatio1 at 6:33 PM on October 8