VH-UMS  Consolidated PBY-5A Super-Canso                      (c/n  1649)

                               

                                     Built in October 1943 as a Catalina with BuAer 48287 for the US Navy, this PBY-5A was
                                     civilianized in the 1950s as N10017.     It was later sold in Canada as CF-JMS and in 1961
                                     was converted to a so-called Super-Canso by Steward-Davis by the expediency of replacing
                                     its 1,200 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830s with 1,700 hp Wright R-2600-20s.  (Went like a bomb).
                                     To compensate for this significant increase in power the aircraft was modified to incorporate the
                                     larger fin and rudder normally seen on Canadian Cansos.   It then flew survey missions for Selco
                                     Exploration and was sent by them to Australia in 1964, where it became VH-UMS.  Its duration
                                     there such was short,  making the photograph above taken at Mascot in 1964 by Greg Banfield a
                                     rare one indeed.   It returned to Canada (1965?) as CF-JMS and later went to the US as N16647
                                     before going back to Canada as C-GGDW.     Its history beyond that point is somewhat academic
                                     insofar as this collection of Australian civil aircraft photos is concerned, but suffice it to say that the
                                     old bird was still going strong well into the new millennium, and was last reported as going out to
                                     Malaysia for tourism flights.