What kind of aircraft is that huge beat up flying boat thingy with wheels?

The short answer is that it's a "PBY".

It is a Consolidated Aircraft design referred to as a "Catalina".

The designation "PBY" was determined in accordance with the U.S. Navy aircraft designation system of 1922; PB representing "Patrol Bomber" and Y being the code assigned to Consolidated Aircraft as its manufacturer.

The prototype Catalina first flew on March 28, 1935, the first production PBY Catalina was launched in San Diego Bay in 1936.

This aircraft is a Consolidated PBY-5A model manufactured by Canadian Vickers Limited. Since it's the first version built by Vickers, it's model number is "1" rather than "5-A", so it's designation is "PBV-1". Canadian Catalinas were named Canso by the Royal Canadian Air Force in accordance with contemporary British naming practice of naming seaplanes after coastal port towns, in this case for the town of Canso in Nova Scotia. The RAF in contrast used the Catalina name.

The PBY-5A model was manufactured from October 1941 through January 1945. It's features were: Hydraulically actuated, retractable tricycle landing gear, with main gear design based on one from the 1920s designed by Leroy Grumman, for amphibious operation. Introduced tail gun position, replaced bow single gun position with bow "eyeball" turret equipped with twin .30 machine guns (some later units), improved armor, self-sealing fuel tanks. Previous models were seaplanes without wheels.

The United States Army Air Forces and later the United States Air Force used the designation OA-10.

The OA-10 operated primarily for air-sea rescue work ("DUMBO" missions) with the USAAF's Emergency Rescue Squadrons throughout WWII and for several years thereafter. During the war, OA-10 crews rescued hundreds of downed fliers.

In July 1941, the Canadian government awarded Canadian Vickers Limited a contract to produce PBV-1 "Canso" amphibians (a version of the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat) for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Many of the aircraft were delivered to the United States Navy (USN) as the PBV-1; also to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as the OA-10A for rescue work.

What you called the plane depended on who was operating it, and where it was built.

Monday August 10, 1987 - Anchorage Times

Plane recovery hits snag

A World War II-vintage PBY Catalina rests in Lake Clark Pass near King Salmon during efforts to salvage the historic aircraft.

Times photos by Walt Johnson

Associated Press

Efforts to recover a World War II vintage PBY Catalina ran into a hitch during the weekend when a lift strap broke and an Alaska Army National Guard helcopter was forced to leave the plane in Lake Clark Pass.

The crew of the Sikorsky Skycrane had picked up the airplane at King Salmon for a flight to Anchorage. They set the plane down at the north end of the pass, about 125 miles southwest of Anchorage.

"We look at this as an inconvenience compared to the first efforts we began making over three years ago to get it moved from Dago Lake where it had rested for 37 years," said Ted Spencer, president of the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. The museum owns the plane.

Guard and museum officials were trying to obtain more special lift straps to complete the airlift sometime this week.

Spencer said his museum's PBY was built in 1943 in Canada under license from the U.S. Army Air Corps. It saw no combat during the war, he said.

"Its historical significance Is from its type," he said. "There are fewer and fewer of these planes and they are starting to go into museums."

The plane in 1947 had an engine failure while flying over the Alaska Peninsula and landed in a shallow lake. "The plane was already obsolete by military standards," Spencer said. "After attempts to get it airworthy, the military gave up and put it up for surplus."

It became known as the "Queen of Dago Lake," he said. "I don't know where that phrase came from. It was kind of a navigational aid, a landmark. The lake actually became known as PBY lake."

Spencer said his group has been working to move the plane since 1978, and managed to get it to King Salmon in 1984.

PBY Catalinas saw heavy use in the Aleutian Islands campaign of World War 11. Nearly 1,200 of the sturdy aircraft saw service in all theaters of the War. About 800 were used by our allies.

The aircraft were designed for endurance and could fly non-stop up to 24 hours. Its maximum speed was about 175 mph at 7,000 feet. It typically cruised at 110 mph.

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