The RNZAF operated 56 Consolidated PBY-5 and Boeing PB2B-1 Catalina aircraft from 1943 until 1953. These capable and reliable flying boats served as long-range anti-submarine, shipping escort, air sea rescue and transport aircraft from bases at Laucala Bay in Fiji, Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, and Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) during World War Two. After the war most of the aircraft went into storage back in New Zealand with only eight remaining in active service. The aircraft in our collection has been partially restored as a representative of the type but was never in RNZAF service. It is a Consolidated Catalina OA-10A-VI manufactured in Canada. It was rescued in a damaged state from New Guinea in 1975 and a team of RNZAF volunteers began restoring it in 1983. It was transferred to Wigram in 1990.