Aero Vintage Books

I am on the hunt for more information of a b-25 recovery that happened on Guadalupe island between 2005-2006. This b-25 isn’t in any registry and a google search turns up that this was one of 3 b-25s that were given to the Mexican air force.



There is also a small amount of information from Wikipedia that’s been repeated all over the web about how it came to be wrecked on the island.



Taken from Wikipedia “A North American B-25J-30/32 Mitchell, BMM-3501 (c/n 44-86712), bomber wrecked on the opposite end of the runway, after suffering serious damage in trying to take-off overloaded.This B-25 wreckage was removed from the island in late 2005 or early 2006.“



I was also able to get a google earth image of the wreck when it was on the island circa 2005. The 2006 google earth shows everything removed except for what looks like to me the center section but I could be wrong about that. But that’s also gone by 2007.

So what happened to 44-86712? the Lodestar is still there at the opposite end of the runway so it was almost certainly recovered for restoration/preservation purposes and not scrapped. I know that Mexico has recently rebuilt a static b-25 for display. Could they possibly have used pieces of the recovered airframe for that? I know they already seemed to have combined two abandoned b-25s into one so that doesn't seem so likely.

Whose got it?

i made a quick vid

https://youtu.be/gTZLn2dtRSU

I suspect it was bulldozed -- you can see in the 2005 pictures, an object about 200 yards east that disappears in the later shots.

You can also see the ground is torn-up where the B-25 laying - the B-25 is also clear a hazard to aviation.

So, it's possible it is still there, just in time earth shaped mounds.

i will agree that is a good possibility. I have tried to compare what the ground looks like before and after the removal but the image quality makes it hard to compare.

The only thing thats making me still hope that it was a recovery is that the 2006 image makes it look like the wreck was disassembled and at that time the center section and tail still remained.