A few weeks ago I posted a link to a video about a “flying Winnebago,” helicopters converted into recreational vehicles. Those were cool. But what I’d *really* want: a PBY Catalina converted into a flying yacht, such as the “Landseaire.” These were glamorous examples of a sadly now bygone era.
The video points out that just because you’ve got buckets of money and a really cool flying yacht, there are some places you just shouldn’t go. There are places on this Earth – Arabia, Detroit, Central America, New York City – where your chances of encountering violent uncivilized barbarians is just too high to risk, and your flying yacht will end up a bullet-riddled wreck slowly corroding away over a span of decades.
It is of course far to much to hope for that production on an aircraft much like the PBY could begin again (as I asked for a short while ago). With modern design and materials, a modern PBY would be lighter and stronger, cheaper to maintain with far better fuel economy and range. But it’s about as likely as restarting the B-17 production line. Eventually 3D metal printing will advance to the point that you can print yourself a PBY kit for little more than the cost of the raw material and the energy needed to melt it all, but even then you’ll still need to assemble it. It’ll be a *long* time before industrial replicators can fab you a complete aircraft in one go.