Los Angeles industrialist Thomas W Kendall bought 13 Catalinas for conversion into flying yachts similar to the Landdseaire conversion. In 1960, Kendall set out from London in N5593V with his own family and a photographer on board. After seeing the pyramids, they alighted off the Saudi coast on 22 March to relax on the beach, but the next morning, they were attacked and taken prisoner by a group of armed Bedouins who took them for Israeli commandos. The bullet-riddled wreck of the Catalina was still present on the beach by 2024. Photo by: David Lees / Life