Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Growing Up
Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour
Sydney to Port Moresby by DH-86
First Impressions of Port Moresby
Meteorological Office Routine
Flight to Kokoda
Tropical Meteorology
John (Doc) Hogan
Setting up House
We Join the RAAF
A Contrast in Attitudes
Some RAAF History
RAAF No 10 Squadron
RAAF No 11 Squadron
The Catalina Story
Construction of the Seven-mile Airstrip and Reclamation Area
Meteorological Service for the RAAF
Unexpected Vistitors
Our State of Readiness
Our Domestic Situation
A Japanese Surprise Packet
What Had We Meteorologists Achieved?
Chapter 3: Port Moresby After Pearl Harbour
Chapter 4: Allied Air Force HQ and RAAF Command, Brisbane
Chapter 5: Japan Surrenders and We Are Demobilised
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Appendix 1: References
Appendix 2: Milestones
Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins
Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 1941–46
Index
Search
Help
Contact us
The Catalina Story
The Australian pilot and navigator, Capt P G (later Sir Patrick) Taylor had flown a US Consolidated PBY-2 twin-engine flying boat for the US Archbold expedition of discovery in New Guinea. It was christened 'Guba', a Motu word describing a strong wind occurring in Port Moresby. In May 1939 he flew Guba from Port Hedland to Mombasa, Kenya via Batavia (now Jakarta), Cocos Island, Diego Garcia and the Seychelles, an overall distance of 14,500km. This aircraft was an obvious long range reconnaissance replacement for the unobtainable Short Sunderland although the US Navy had declared it obsolescent in 1939. On 6 June 1940 the Australian Cabinet decided to order seven, with a further 11 being ordered in September 1940. An obvious advantage was that the same Pratt and Whitney engines were used in the Catalina, the Wirraway and the Lockheed Hudson.The RAAF borrowed the designation Catalina for the PBY flying boat from the RAP (which had previously ordered 200 in September 1939). The town of Catalina was the location of the Consolidated factory on the west coast of the USA where the PBYs were built.
In January 1941 Qantas pilots Captains Brain, 'Scotty' Allen and Orme Denny and Captain P. G. Taylor flew the first PBY-5 (Catalina) to Australia. It was not appropriate to use RAAF pilots because at that time the USA was a non-belligerent. The route from San Diego to Sydney involved refuelling in Honolulu, Canton Island and Noumea (or Fiji). The longest leg was San Diego to Honolulu which, with the air speed of the Catalina little more than 100 knots, took over 20 hours.
In two of his stories in the Canberra Times in 1991, Dick Kingsland tells of his discharge from RAAF No 10 Squadron in the UK (where he had been flying Sunderlands and had won the DFC for rescuing Lord Gort and Duff Cooper from Morocco) and his amusing experiences travelling as a civilian in a banana boat to the USA in May 1941 for a conversion course to Catalinas.
People in Bright Sparcs - Kingsland, Richard
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
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