(photographer not known)

Delivered to the US Navy as PB4Y-2 59819 in 1945. Sold as N3739G in 1960 and converted to a fire bomber then converted to a Super Privateer in 1968. Operated by T&G Aviation from 1977. To the Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston TX in 1991 and restored to military configuration. Badly damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. Moved to the Pima Air and Space Museum, AZ in 2015 and restored in US Navy colours as 59819.

Nineteen years after I first saw her as Tanker 121, withdrawn from use in the Museum of Flight & Aerial Firefighting at Greybull (WY), she was looking splendid in her original USCG outfit - and still very much airworthy. Many thanks to VP Goss for facilitating our visit.

Parked in front of the GossHawk Unlimited hangar. This former Hawkins & Powers Privateer was sold to private owners in 2006 and brought under the care of GossHawk Unlimited in 2010. In April 2013 it was painted in its original 1950s Coast Guard markings. The yellow band over the rear fuselage and serial 66302 on the tail were added in early 2020. It is the last airworthy Privateer in the world.

This is a marking on the port side of the nose of N2871G, the world's last flying PB4Y-2 Privateer

Delivered to the US Navy as 59876 in 1945. Transferred to the US Coast Guard in 1953. Stored at Litchfield Park, AZ in 1954. Sold as N6813D in 1957. Converted to a sprayer by 1962. To Hawkins and Powers Aviation in 1969 and converted to a fire bomber. Damaged in an accident at Port Hardy, BC in 1975. To the Canadian Museum of Flight and Transportation in 1976 who were unable to transport it to Richmond B.C.. It was dismantled and transported to the Yankee Air Force Museum, Detroit Willow Run in 1981 and restored for static display.

This Privateer is a composite of several sections from different aircraft put together by Hawkins & Powers at their Greybull, WY base before ferrying to Pensacola in 1983, adopting the identity of 66304/N2870G. However several authoritative sources point to the majority coming from 33261/N7682C, incorporating major parts from 66304, 59882 and 66313. What is clear, however, is that it has suffered extensive hurricane damage

Ex US Navy 90026. Operated out of Dorval, Quebec, by 231 Sqn on transatlantic services. Returned to the USN in April 1946. Photo from: Imperial War Museums

Delivered to the US Navy as PB4Y-2 59819 in 1945. Sold as N3739G in 1960 and converted to a fire bomber then converted to a Super Privateer in 1968. Operated by T&G Aviation from 1977. To the Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston TX in 1991 and restored to military configuration. Badly damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. Moved to the Pima Air and Space Museum, AZ in 2015 and restored in US Navy colours as 59819.

Operated by SS & T Aerial Contractors. Crashed near Safford in Arizona on 27 June 1974. Photo by Steve Kraus.

By 1945 several squadrons of Privateers were conducting operations from the Philippines to the Aleutian Islands. The PB4Y-2 with its distinctive single tail was much better equipped than the earlier PB4Y-1, which was basically just an adapted B-24, and stayed in Navy service after the war for missions such as weather reconnaissance and signals intelligence, before being retired around 1955. Several were then modified as civilian air tankers used in fighting forest fires until 2002. This one was tanker 'C30', registered N3739G, now restored in the colours of VPB-120, Shemya Island, AK in 1945