Sikorsky XPBS / VS-44 Excalibur

I am researching Charlie Blair and his flying record. The VS-44 seems to be one of his favorites. Can anyone explain why this plane would be a favorite? Any information either on the plane or Charlie Blair would be wonderful and apprecaited.
Thank you.

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An update. Data on the XPBS-2 taxiing on the water, please. Any others?

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Still looking for any wartime photos of the XPBS-1 in Navy colors.

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Do you guys know that one of these boats exist today? yep, in a museum in Conneticut. She is fully restored. I had the
pleasure of flying aboard from Los Angeles to Catalina Is. (26 mi off the coast) in 1962. With my wife with me, it was a most exciting, historic flight. She is the last of the J class clippers. It is ashame no 314s were preserved.

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back in my day when dinosaurs romed i flew these babies all the time. i just would wade in the water then id bring troops over too kill those damn japs.

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The Sikorsky VS-44-A was a real forerunner for its day. It was a real accomplishment for not only Vought-Sikorsky as a whole, but also for the company's employees. To make this plane contributing individuals and departments had to work together in a way that they had not before. They developed and built the plane in a relatively short time. Alex Sperber was General Foreman, Andrew Bevolo was Assistant Foreman, Dante Carbone was Final Assembly Forman, Mats Forslund was Wing Shop Foreman, Emil Galke was Detail Shop Foreman, Lawrence Petrucelli was hull and interior foreman, and Edward Koplowski was Night Foreman. Sigurd J. Lee was employed as the power hammer man and is responsible for all the outside shaping of the VS-44-A hull, having hammered all the metal himself.
After the flyboat was completed it was Christened by Mrs. Henry Al Wallace and then flown to Jacksonville Florida to get through a series of tests. All handling qualifications and performance exceeded all expectations.
Source: Vought Sikorsky Club, Inc. Flight Sheet publication. Volume 1, February 1942. Number 4

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Capt Charles Blair (AOA, later with Pan Am) made the first non-stop Foynes - New York flight in this aircraft. Refuelling stops were usually made at Botwood, Newfoundland, but on one occasion (date uncertain), the Flight Engineer advised Blair they were ahead on fuel score approaching Botwood. (Fuel burn on the North Atlantic was tracked via a "Howgozit" form completed at position reporting points, every 5 or 10 degrees of longitude.) The AOA scheduled passenger flight overflew Botwood and made it all the way to Long Island with a comfortable reserve. Blair was a Brigadier General in the USAF Reserve, and later made an other record-breaking flight, with a P-51 over the North Pole from Scandinavia to Alaska(?). He was married to movie actress Maureen O'Hara, and was president /owner of Antilles Airboats in the Caribbean. He was killed in a Grumman amphibian crash not long after his retirement from PAA.

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