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PBN-1 Nomad

While Consolidated employees worked to produce the PBY-5, their counterparts at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia worked to improve it. During 1940 NAF engineers developed several worthwhile hydrodynamic and aerodynamic modifications for the plane, but these couldn't be incorporated without stopping Consolidated's production lines and slowing much-needed deliveries of the current model. So the navy took a different tack: on 16 July 1941 an order for 156 modified PBY-5s went to the Naval Aircraft Factory itself.

The NAF version, designated PBN-1 and named "Nomad," featured a longer hull - 64 feet 8 inches - a sharper bow, a 20 percent taper step amidships, and a shallow breaker step just forward of the tail. Wing tip floats were redesigned for more lift and improved planing. More fuel tanks were added in the wing center section. Wings were strengthened to carry 38,000 pounds gross weight. A new electrical system was installed. The most noticeable change, however, was the two feet in height added to the vertical fin. The armament was unchanged with one exception: a .50-caliber machine gun in a hydraulically powered turret replaced the .30-caliber gun in the bow.

The first Nomad didn't come off the NAF assembly line until February 1943, and even then the navy got little use from the design. Of the 156 PBN-ls produced, 138 went to the U.S.S.R. under Lend-Lease. A modified Nomad design was produced by Consolidated late in World War II as the PBY-6A amphibian - the first was delivered in January 1945. It differed from the PBN-1 boats in having a 63-foot hull, a radome above the cockpit, and a rotating ball turret on the bow fitted with twin .30-caliber machine guns. This turret was also used on late-model PBY-5As.

The PBN differed from the PBY in that it had a revised hull, revised wing tip floats, a very unique nose turret, a pointed nose, longer fuselage and tall tail. The tall tail design feature was picked up by the PBY-6A & PB2B-2 Catalinas. The Nomad features improved performance designs over the PBY with a V trailing step, a larger vertical stabilizer and a clipper bow that rides the waves better. Only 17 of the PBNs were delivered to the Navy. The remaining 139 were delivered to the Russians at the end of the war.