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05/31/2008. Built in larger numbers than all other flying boats combined, the Catalina was in continuous production for ten years. Pictured is the very first, ordered as XP3Y-1 on October 28, 1933, and flew for the first time on March 28, 1935. Three months later, June 29, the USN ordered 60 production aircraft, designated PBY-1. On October 14 and 15, 1935, Lt.Cdr. McGinnis and his crew flew the XP3Y-1 from Cristobal Harbor, Canal Zone, to Alameda, California, in 34 hr 45 min, establishing a new world records for Class C seaplanes of 3,443 mls (5,541 km). Immediately thereafter, the aircraft was returned to Consolidated and had its two 825 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-54 Twin Wasp engines replaced by 900 hp R-1830-64s. When it flew again on May 19, 1936, it was redesignated XPBY-1 and also had a revised vertical tail, although the production aircraft had yet another, rounder vertical tail.