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We're including these pages as an update point for B-25 news. We'll post information garnered from any variety of sources, and notate that source at the end of the item. If anyone has anything they'd like to add, please let us know.

December 2015

• More on the Lancaster B-25C: As discussed in the October 2015 update, the B-25C long stored at the Willy J. Fox Field at Lancaster, California, was recently sold to a company with ties to the Hearst Corp. In the last month, it has been dismantled and sections moved to two different locations. According to reports, the nose and center section of B-25C 41-13251 (N3968C) was trucked to Ezell Aviation at Breckenridge, Texas. The remainder of the airframe, including aft fuselage, wings, engines, and empennage, were moved to the Nut Tree Airport at Vacaville, California. Ezell Aviation has the resources to begin a restoration project; it is unknown at this time whether or not the Nut Tree location is for storage only or if work will also be underway there. Still awaiting some photos of all this activity. Thanks to Nick Veronico for the head's up.

• Barbie III To Cavanaugh Flight Museum: B-25H 43-4106 (N5548N), better known as Barbie III, has been sold after being on the market for over a year. Its new owner is, as per the FAA Registry, Cavanaugh Air LLC of Addison, Texas, so presumably the airplane is destined for the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. This might be a bit of a puzzle as the Cavanaugh Flight Museum also holds the historically significant combat veteran TB-25N 44-28925 (N7687C), also known as How 'Boot That. Nonetheless, the transfer of ownership was recorded on October 21, 2015.

  This particular B-25 is unique in that it is a B-25H equipped with the short cannon nose and wears the paint scheme and markings of a 1st Air Commando Group B-25H based in India that flew missions into Japanese occupied Burma. The current Barbie III, N5548N, had a bit less dramatic stateside role during the war and ended up as surplus equipment with a college at Stillwater, Oklahoma. It ended up in the civil market later and was used between 1951 and 1967 by Bendix as a test bed bird. After that use, it went through a number of owners until it was restored and became Barbie III with the Weary Warriors group at Rockford and, later, Aurora, Illinois. It was sold in July 2009 to Historic Flight, which operated the B-25 until its recent sale.

  Matt at Florida Warbirds caught up with the B-25 on November 21 while it was at American Aero Services at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, undergoing maintenance for its new owner, and offered some current photos.

  

  As can be seen, the airplane has suffered a bit over the past few years. Plans are not known for the future status of the B-25H but it would appear it is on to bigger and better things with its new owner.

  

  And, as an aside, I pulled this photo out of my stack as it shows what I think are four of the airplanes transferred by the RFC to the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, Oklahoma, nowadays better knows as Oklahoma State University. There is an unidentified F6F Hellcat, AT-6A 41-16021, P-51D 44-15738, and this unidentified B-25H which I believe to be 43-4106. This photo was taken in June 1946 and seen in the rear are some of the 475 surplus bombers and fighters purchased by Paul Mantz and his partners four months earlier. For what it is worth, there are no further records I can located on either the Mustang or Texan.

  

• Chanute B-25 On The Move: The B-25 long displayed at the now-closed Chanute AFB is being moved to Alabama for display. The site of Chanute AFB, located south of Chicago in Illinois near the town of Rantoul, closed in 1993 and, in a similar fashion to that of other base museums, a private foundation assumed full responsibility for running the museum. That worked well enough for two decades but the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum, as it is now called, closed its doors for good on December 1st. Much of its collection remains under the jurisdiction of the NMUSAF, and various aircraft and other display material have been slated to be moved.

  This includes TB-25N 44-30635, a fixture at the base display since 1958 when it was surplus to USAF needs. This TB-25N spent most of its operational time at Chanute AFB assigned to technical training units and was towed over to the museum upon retirement.

  

  Over the years it has been painted and marked in a variety of schemes, one of the last being the requisite markings of Jimmy Doolittle's B-25B used in the 1942 raid. At the time the announcement was made about the museum closure, the B-25 airframe was in the midst of paint stripping and polishing with the intent to return it to the last scheme worn when it was operational in 1958. The job was about halfway done, as is shown by these photos sent in by Chris Brame. For my part, I hope that effort toward restoration of its original markings continues, both in the name of accuracy and to represent an important part of the B-25's military use that lasted fifteen years past the end of World War II.

  

  

  

  And, yes, that is a rare B-58 in the background. Not sure where it is destined to go (and hopefully not to be scrapped).

  The TB-25N has been assigned by the NMUSAF to the Southern Museum of Flight at Birmingham, Alabama. This museum also displays the nose section of the Lake Murray B-25C, 41-12634. No timeline has been announced that I can find as to when the B-25 will be moved from Illinois.

  Thanks to Chris for sending in the photos and also to museum volunteer Curt Arsenau for helping him get these photos and a whole bunch more of the last days of the museum.

• The Other UK B-25: After the mention of the Duxford B-25 in the October update, Phil Glover sent in this nice view of the other UK B-25, this being TB-25N 44-29366 (ex N9115Z) that is displayed in Bomber Hall at the RAF Museum at Herndon near London and marked as 43-4037.

  

  This was once a B-25 air tanker operated by Sonora Flying Service in California in the early 1960s before going on to become a movie star, appearing in the 1970 film Catch-22 and the 1978 film Hanover Street, the latter of which was filmed in England. It remained in England after the filming, fell on somewhat hard times, and went to the RAF Museum in 1982. It has been on static display ever since.

• B-25 Identified #1: Back in the July 2015, I had a photo of this then unidentified B-25 in one of the topics.

  

  B-25 guy Gary Lewis identified the airplane as B-25J 44-29678 (N9958F), which had originally gone to the Royal Air Force after delivery in November 1944 and operated as Mitchell III KJ692, then its history gets a bit more cloudy. It was apparently back in the U.S. in 1953 and being brokered by the Charles Babb company, eventually gaining its U.S. civil registration. It was reportedly modified to a executive transport and flew as Miss Tracy Sue for a time. It was seen at Chino in April 1972 and was obviously at Long Beach at about the same time. It was sold to a Mexican owner, gained the civil registration of XB-DOF and eventually went on static display in Mexico City. According to Gary, it was scrapped in 1989.

  Here is a 1963 view of the same airplane in better times.

  

• B-25 Identified #2: And, Gary Lewis came through with the identification of this B-25 seen in this photo I posted back in July 2015.

  

  It shows the brand new KTLA telecopter departing from an L.A. area airport in mid-1958 with the B-25 in question in the background. Gary has identified it as B-25H 43-4336 (N96GC).

  

  This B-25H was, at the time, owned by Grand Central Aircraft Co. at Grand Central Airport in Glendale, which is where the photo was no doubt taken. This airplane enjoyed a varied if checkered civil utilization from 1950 until 1975, when it crashed in Georgia during an alleged drug smuggling run.

  Thanks, Gary, for both those IDs.

• Mexican B-25 With New Scheme: Speaking of Mexican B-25s, the B-25 displayed in the Chapultepec Park in Mexico City was repainted as of early 2013, as shown in this photo sent in by Phil Glover. Not particularly current news, but this airplane now wears the Fuerza Aérea Mexicana colors and markings of B-25 3501, one of three B-25s operated by the FAM between 1945 and 1959.

  

  This aircraft is actually TB-25J 44-29128 that was RCAF 5236 and, later still, N92872. It enjoyed a checkered civil utilization in the U.S. before going to Mexico in 1970 and has been on display on a pole in the park since about that time.

• B-25 Mitchell in Civil Service: I would be remiss if not mentioning that much of the background material written on these pages comes from my 1997 book B-25 Mitchell In Civil Service, and that I am now offering this book for a total cost of $10 shipped to U.S. addresses and $25 shipped to most overseas addresses.

  

  A great book at a good deal, I must say. Jump here to order your own copy, like right now.

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  October 2015

  • New Owner and Flying Future for Rare B-25C: Coert Munk passed along word that the extremely rare B-25C, 41-13251 (N3968C), once operated by Howard Hughes, has a new owner. According to the FAA Registry, on August 18, 2015, this B-25C was registered to San Simeon Air LLC of San Francisco. Now, further information has emerged that suggests this airplane is to be restored to airworthy condition in the corporate transport configuration it was as operated by the Hughes Tool Co. beginning in 1953.

    

    A little bit of internet research reveals that, at least back in 2009, the Managing Member of San Simeon Air LLC was William R. Hearst III (yeah, that one). According to the FAA registry, San Simeon Air currently owns a Cessna Citation X and a Cessna 182 and, now, a B-25C. The limited information available suggests that someone in the Hearst organization holds a fond memory of flying in this B-25C when it was operated by the Hughes Tool Co. and took advantage of the opportunity to obtain the airframe. It would appear that a non-profit organization will organize a restoration, with work to be conducted in Texas and California. It will be restored back to the custom configuration devised by the Hughes Tool Co. for the airplane back in 1953.

    Here is the basic history of this B-25C as documented in B-25 Mitchell in Civil Service: It was built as B-25C-1-NA and delivered on September 30, 1942, with its initial assignment to Greenville Field, South Carolina, and, later, to Drew Field at Tampa, Florida. Its final assignment was to Brooks Field, Michigan, in February 1945. It was released to the RFC at Walnut Ridge in December 1945 and sold on September 13, 1946 to the Texas Railway Equipment Corp., Houston, Texas, as part of a sale of 4,861 surplus aircraft. It was then sold in December 1947 to Robert Harlow of Houston, Texas, for $1,750. The civil registration of NL75635 was assigned in December 1947. It was then sold in April 1949 to Al Gruff of Dallas, Texas, for $10,000. It was then exported for service with the Fuerza Aerea Dominicana (Dominican Air Force). Its military serial was reportedly assigned as FAD 2502. The civil registration was canceled by CAA in January 1952. Then, it was sold on July 8, 1952, by FAD to Charles Mathews & Co. of Miami, Florida, then sold in July 1952 to the Babb Company of Newark, New Jersey. A new civil registration of N3968C was assigned in July 1952. It was then sold in January 1953 to the Hughes Tool Company of Houston, Texas. It was based at the Hughes Airport in Culver City, a since abandoned airport just north of LAX in southern California. It was transferred in July 1974 to the Antelope Valley Aero Museum at Lancaster, CA. It was subsequently stored at Fox Field at Lancaster in steadily deteriorating condition through the 1980s. The museum name changed in ownership records to Milestones of Flight Museum in September 1986.

    Why Hughes Tool Company purchased the aircraft has been obscured a bit through the years, and Howard Hughes' direct involvement with the airplane is thought to be minimal at best. Hughes Tool Co. owned two unique aircraft, the B-25C and a Douglas A-20J. The B-25C was obviously converted to an executive transport and used as such, but some accounts suggest Hughes was not involved in the purchase of the aircraft and was not happy to have it in his stable. Both the B-25 and A-20 were pretty much towed off into the weeds at the Hughes Airport in Culver City after 1960 or so, and remained there until the pair was donated to the Lancaster air museum. Reportedly, the B-25 was towed to Lancaster and the A-20 was ferried. I would refer those interested in a bit more background about Hughes and this B-25C, read some of the entries, particularly by GARY1954, in this WIX posting.

    The well-intentioned efforts to establish a viable air museum at Lancaster were never very successful, at least from what I personally have observed through the years. Apparently the museum was recently completely closed and its assets were available for disposal. Hence, the B-25C was acquired by San Simeon Air LLC. Reports suggest that, at this writing in late September, the airframe is being disassembled at Lancaster and will be shortly shipped out. Destination: possibly a shop in Texas west of Dallas. Condition of the airframe is reported to be pretty marginal with typical B-25 corrosion issues. There are several other aviation luminaries involved but I want to avoid putting out bad information so I will leave it here: more to follow.

  • New Paint Scheme for Duxford B-25: The TB-25J, 44-31171 (ex N7614C) displayed at the American Air Museum at Duxford, England, received a new paint scheme this summer. Gone are the PBJ U.S. Navy colors worn on the bomber since a long time ago, replaced by a scheme and markings to represent B-25J 43-4064, which served with the 488th Bomb Squadron of the 340th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force, from bases in Italy. The original information was provided by Coert Munk, and Phil Glover just sent in a photo of the airplane taken in August 2015 in the new scheme. Phil notes that the aircraft name and nose art, not seen in either photo, is Lil' Critter from the Moon.

    

    The B-25 was subsequently suspended from the ceiling of the main museum building, and here is a more recent, September 20th, Phil Glover photo showing it in its final display position:

    

    And, for old times sake, is a view of the old scheme, seen in January 1998, at the then-new American Air Museum at Duxford. The ex-cameraship had been flown to England in 1970 to film a BOAC commercial, and was derelict at Shoreham by the mid-1970s. Rescued by the Imperial War Museum, it was restored for display as a USMC PB-1J.

    

    The American Air Museum is currently being overhauled and is expected to reopen in the spring of 2016.

  • B-25s Moving Around: Not the hottest news, but worth mentioning. The near derelict TB-25K, 44-31508 (N6578D), long parked at the Franklin, Virginia, airport has been disassembled with the majority of the airframe shipped to Australia for incorporation in an ongoing restoration project. It arrived this past month and is in the process of being cleaned and inspected. According to the Reevers Warbird Roundup Facebook Page, work should commence in November or maybe later on doing a static restoration on the airplane. Configuration, markings, and eventual display location have not yet been revealed. Peter Smythe, aka 'Reever', is behind the effort to get the B-25 back together, and he is based at Adelaide in the state of South Australia. Where exactly the B-25 parts are is not clear to me, but they are south of the equator.

    

    The history of TB-25K 44-31508 (N6578D) is checkered at best. After being sold as surplus in 1960, it bounced around a couple of civil owners before being obtained, in September 1967, by Euramericair, Inc., a Jeff Hawke company that was organized at least in part to provide the camera plane for the 1968 filming in England of The Battle of Britain. For that role, the airplane had special camera positions fitted in the nose and tail, and it was painted in a garish high-visibility scheme such that it was dubbed as the Psychedelic Monster. After the filming, it languished to dereliction, then was eventually obtained and restored by Tom Reilly, after which it operated as Chapter IX. It moved on to a new owner later, and was operated for awhile as Lucky Lady but, after some ownership disputes and other issues, it ended up going, once again, to a derelict condition at Franklin. Though many of the internal parts were stripped out for another B-25 restoration before it was disassembled, it is hoped that perhaps the future of this airplane is a bit more secure now.

    A 1975 view with the remnants of its Battle of Britain markings:

    

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    July 2015

    • B-25s Moving Around #1: It's been a long, long, while since I did an update and some B-25s have moved on to new owners. This is old news but, first off, TB-25N 44-30748 (N8195H), perhaps better known as Heavenly Body, was purchased for the Erickson Aircraft Collection at Madras, Oregon back in June 2014, and is now operated as part of that collection.

      

      No change to the paint scheme or name or nose art, to this point anyways. This was long operated by the late Milo Pupich out of Van Nuys airport, and this airplane is a Catch-22 veteran.

    • B-25s Sorta Moving Around #2: History Flight put its B-25H, 43-4106 (N5548N), also known as Barbie III, up for sale in 2014 and was carried by Courtesy Aircraft Sales. In early June 2015, the Courtesy website is showing the aircraft as 'sales pending.' Mums the word for now as to a possible new owner, but expect it to be moving.

    • TB-25N Nose Section Surfaces: Back in early 2014, the Sandbar Mitchell restoration team was trying to locate the missing cockpit and nose section from the remanants of TB-25N 44-30733 (N9088Z) that the group had pulled from an Alaskan sandbar in 2013. Well, it turns out the missing cockpit/nose was right under our, er, noses. Bruce Orriss had acquired the fuselage section a few years ago and he holds it in storage for a future project.

      

      Air tanker N9088Z made an off field landing in a farily remote area near Fairbanks after engine failure back in June 1969. It was initially stripped of usable parts by its owner and abandoned, and in subsequent years it was further stripped of parts including this cockpit and nose section. The major parts of the recovered airframe is undergoing a restoration with the Warbirds of Glory museum of Brighton, Michigan. The group has since acquired the cockpit and nose section of another B-25, this being TB-25K 44-30947 (N92880), that will be incorporated into its restoration. This could get confusing but it is good to now know where that missing component went.

    • Blast From the Past: B-25s: Reader Chris Hoage sent in a bunch of interesting photos his dad took back in the 1970s, all of them interesting but some of the particularly worth sharing.

      The first is of B-25D 41-29784 (N122B) that appears to have been taken at Long Beach (LGB), California, circa 1972. N122B was a long operated civil B-25 and, in 1972, was operated out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Between 1953 and 1966, it was operated by the Timken Roller Bearing Co., having been converted to an executive configuration in 1953 that saw the addition of the 200 gallon wing tip tanks. This airplane survives on static display, suspended in the hangar bay, on the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina.

      

      This second one is a mystery; date and location and airframe unknown.Obviously parked with some T-33s and/or some other ex USAF types. Anybody know which B-25 this is and/or where it was taken?

      

      Here is another view of the same aircraft from a different angle.

      

      And here is another unknown B-25 at Long Beach, probably taken about 1972. This one should be fairly easy to identify but I have yet to do it.

      

      And, one we do recognize, this being on the Tallmantz ramp and is TB-25N 44-30493 (N9451Z) in its post Catch-22, pre Tallmantz cameraship, days.

      

      Chris sent more photos in and I have used some on the July 2015 B-17 update and others on my Tallmantz photo gallery pages. Check them out...

    • Another XB-HEY Photo: Back in the August 2014 B-25 News we covered in some detail the history of VB-25N 45-8843 (XB-HEY) and its use by Ed Tabor and his Flying Sportsman Lodge on the Baja peninsula in Mexico. Contributor Frank McInnis found another photo of the airplane, evidently on the Baja airstrip in 1963 with some sportsmen customers, probably taken by Frank's grandfather of his fishing buddies.

      

      The photo doesn't add much to the story but it provides yet another view of the B-25 that ended up being destroyed (in Mexico) six years later during the filming of Catch-22.

    • Mystery B-25 #1: Craig Thorsen sent in a photo he recently unearthed showing the first news helicopter, the KTLA telecopter, in mid-1958. Kind of cool, but even of more interest is the B-25 parked in the back of the telecopter.

      

      I have gone through a bunch of my photos trying to match up the paint scheme but found nothing definitive. This was taken at an L.A. area airport in mid-1958. A bit of research would suggest the helicopter was operated from Van Nuys by National Helicopters, so this is probably where the photo was taken. If anyone has any more information about which B-25 it is, please pass it along....

    • Mystery B-25 #2: A researcher sent in this photo of an unidentified B-25 for which more information is being sought.

      

      The researcher provides the following details:

      "The B-25 Mitchell Bomber purchased by the people of Girard is now in action." That is how the mystery began as per this above historic "Timeline" for 1943. The mystery continues as to how the B25 Mitchell bomber was used in the war, who were the contributors, in what battles was it involved, who were its crew members and what happened to this historic B-25 Mitchell Bomber after the War. Now that is the BIG mystery. I have already asked the authors of this "History" timeline and they cannot find anything more about this B-25 bomber than that. I have been searching for several years in old Boeing Aircraft historic archives without even a lead. Girard's life long resident and GHS '57 graduate, William Patterson (father to Bill Patterson and brother to David Patterson, whose wife is Pam Goodman Patterson, both GHS '64) remembers the school kids back in Girard's grade schools collecting metal and paper for the war effort and perhaps that was part of the effort to raise the money for this $175,000 price tag. However, Connie Rozzo Nickell, GHS 64 and now living in Eugene, OR, just recently told me about a photo similar to this one, with also the name "City of Girard" on it's Nose Art and reference to New Guinea, that was sold by someone from Girard on eBay for $42. However, Connie could not determine who the seller or the buyer were. That is now also part of this continuing mystery.

      There were dozens and probably hundreds of such aircraft 'bought' through war bond drives. If any researchers can shed light on any details about this B-25, please pass them along.

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