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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.

June 2016

• Camarillo PBJ-1 Flies: On Sunday, May 15, 2016, the sole existent PB-1J (built as B-25J 44-30988 took wing for the first time in twenty-three years after a decades-long labor-of-love restoration effort by the Southern California Wing of the Commemorative Air Force at Camarillo, California.

  

  The PBJ-1J made its first post-restoration flight at about 1400 local time, the flight lasting about an hour and witnessed by a good crowd of wing members and other supporters. That flight was the culmination of much hard work by the wing's restoration team. Notably, almost all of the effort was done in house in the wing's restoration hangar.

  The restoration process has been well documented at several places on the web, with SoCal Wing member Dan Newcomb providing a 10-year running account on the WIX Forum. Another comprehensive photo review can be found here in a Warbird News posting that also uses Dan's photos for a (relatively) quick review of just what was involved in restoring this B-25. Not for the faint of heart.

  From B-25 Mitchell in Civil Service comes its civil history. 44-30988 was built as B-25J-30-NC and delivered on March 20, 1945, at Kansas City. It was slated to go to the Navy and delivered directly to a USN modification center at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, becoming PBJ-1J BuNo 35857. The USN history card documents that it was assigned to the Weapons Division and, later, the Experimental Flight Test Unit at the Naval Air Modification Unit (NAMU) at Johnsville, Pennsylvania, for its USN utilization, suggesting it was never actually assigned to the USMC as most, if not all, other PBJs were. It was surplus after February 1947 and released to the WAA for disposal. It was sold in July 1947 to the St. Louis Flying Service at Krats Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, for $950, becoming N5865V on the CAA registry. It was sold in January 1948 to Continental Airlines, reportedly (seems a bit of a stretch) for use in pilot transition training from the DC-3 to Convair 240.

  

  It was then sold in April 1950 to the Oilfield Aviation Corp. at Houston, Texas, and was modified as an executive transport with an airstair door, chrome plating, and executive interior at that time.

  

  It was damaged in a gear up landing, possibly at Long Beach, California, in mid-1951, and was subsequently repaired. I was then sold in April 1960 to the Atlantic Aviation Corp. of Wilmington, Delaware. In the subsequent ten years it enjoyed a succession of civil owners, and being used for electronics testing under contract with Texas Instruments.

  

  Tom Reilly got involved with the aircraft beginning in 1971, but there were several ownership disputes that followed between Craig Tims of Roanoke, Texas, the (then) Confederate Air Force, and several other claimed owners. It ended up flying with the Old Brew Trust as Big Ole Brew ‘n Little Ole You but was transferred by court order back to the (then) Confederate Air Force in February 1988. It was assigned by the CAF to the Southern California Wing in 1993 and flown to Camarillo where it was rolled into the hangar for restoration. The rest is, as they say, history.

• B-25 Returns to Display at Duxford: Phil Glover passed along several photos of the B-25J, 44-31171 (ex N7614C) taken in April at the newly reopened American Air Museum at Duxford in the U.K. The airplane, as mentioned in recent updates, is now marked as Li'l Critter From the Moon and carries the serial of 43-4064, which served with the 488th Bomb Squadron of the 340th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force, from bases in Italy.

  

  As can be seen, the aircraft is now suspended from the museum ceiling. Thanks to Phil for sending in the recent photos.

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  February 2016

  • Movieland of The Air B-25 Forward Fuselage, Circa 1984: Here's a view of a bit of a mystery B-25 forward fuselage. Tom Tessier sent in the photo taken in January 1984 at the soon-to-close Movieland of the Air Museum at Orange County Airport in Southern California.

    

    The airframe is unidentified but all indications would suggest that this fuselage section is the same that is currently held on display at the Tennessee Museum of Aviation at Sevierville. One knowledgable source suggests the cockpit section is a B-25C and the nose section is from a later varient. This would suggest it is probably the one used for the studio close up exterior shots for the filming of Catch-22 in 1969. Note that a close look at the above view shows removable panels around the cockpit for camera access.

    

    For those with a greater interest, I would suggest this comprehensive WIX thread that provides a bunch of additional details.

    After the Movieland of the Air Museum closed in 1985, this fuselage section reportedly went to Bill Klaers at nearby Rialto, and eventually went to Neil Melton for use in the Tennesse Museum of Aviation. As for the actual identity of the cockpit section: probably just about impossible to determine. This may have been a long time studio prop going back to the days of World War II, possibly even to the filming of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo in 1943. I have one feeler out to Hollywood airplane guy Bruce Orriss to see if he can shed further light on this. More to come, maybe.

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