North American B-25J Mitchell
Plane History | The Air Zoo’s Model | Plane Stats
Plane History
The B-25 came into production as a result of a competition initiated by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1938, for a new twin engine medium attack bomber. The resulting successful designs were the prototypes for the B-25 Mitchell and the B-26 Marauder.
The B-25 prototype was powered by two Pratt and Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp radial engines. It had a maximum bomb load of 1,200 pounds, flew at a maximum speed of 265 mph and fully loaded weighed 19,500 pounds. Because the military required better performance, the Pratt and Whitney engines were replaced with Wright Cyclones. These engines increased the speed to 285 mph and the weight to 21,000 pounds.
The Army approved the B-25 prototype in September of 1939, and the first completed aircraft made its initial test flight on August 19, 1940. Full production ran from 1941 thru 1945, with the B-25J being the final production model.
Each model had various features, but the one common to all was the somewhat inverted gull wing. The prototype had wings that formed a dihedral all the way from root to tip, but the production models had no dihedral from the cowling to the tip.
The first model changes resulted in self-sealing fuel tanks and armor plates around the pilots and early models had retractable bottom turrets, but these were dropped from production when the B-25’s roll changed from high-level to low-level attack.
Other modifications included removable bomb bay fuel tanks, wing mounted bomb and rocket racks, and the G and H models were often armed with 75 mm nose cannons, which were manually loaded and could fire 4 rounds per strafing run. The Air Zoo’s B-25 was originally built as an “H” model with the 75 mm cannon.
The B-25 is best known for its use in the raid on Tokyo that took place on 18 April 1942. Sixteen B-25B’s were launched from the carrier USS Hornet, led by Lt. Colonel James Doolittle. The aircraft were forced to launch approximately 400 miles earlier than scheduled when the task force was spotted by Japanese patrol ships.
Because of this, all 16 aircraft were unable to reach their landing sites in China and were lost, but most of the crews survived. The mission did little physical damage, but it had a huge psychological impact on the Japanese people.
During World War II, the B-25 served in all theaters of war, and with many different air forces, including the British Royal Air Force, and the Russian Air Force which received hundreds through the lend-lease program, as well as with the US Navy and US Marine Corps.
The B-25 has to be considered one of the best medium bombers ever built. It did whatever was asked of it and was modified heavily in the field and on the production line to meet a variety of roles.
The Air Zoo’s B-25J Mitchell
The Air Zoo’s B-25 saw action in the Philippines during the war. After the war, it was assigned to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver, CA, where it was used in movie production. It also served as a corporate aircraft.
It was acquired by the Air Zoo on February 2, 1980 and has been restored to represent a B-25J with the 8-gun “solid” nose. The present paint scheme is that of the 498th bomb Squadron, the “Falcons” of the 345th bomb Group (Air Apaches) in the South Pacific during World War II.
Plane Stats
Powerplant: Two R-2600 Wright Cyclones (1,700 HP each)
Armament:
- Eight .50 cal. machine guns in the nose;
- Four .50 cal. machine guns, side mounted and forward firing (two on each side)
- Two .50 cal. machine guns in top mounted turret
- Two .50 cal. machine guns, waist mounted (one on each side)
- Two .50 cal. machine guns, mounted in the tail turret
- 4,000 lbs. bombs
Wingspan: 67 ft. 7 in.
Length: 52 ft. 11 in.
Height: 15 ft. 9 in.
Weight: 19,975 lbs. (E); 36,047 lbs. (L)
Speed (max.): 275 mph at 13,000 ft.
Service Ceiling: 23,800 ft.
Range: 1,350 miles
Crew: 5