Northrop's Chief Test Pilot Vance Breese flew the first N-3PB (c/n 301) on 22 December 1940 from Lake Elsinore, California.
No. 330(N) Squadron was declared operational on 25 April 1941;[REF] the N-3PBs were erected in a seaplane hangar at Reykjavik, with the first aircraft flying by 2 June 1941 [REF].