B-25

B-25. (Photo by Philip Makanna.)

—I keep seeing it. It’s in my bathroom.
The June 2017 entry of my Ghosts WWII warbirds calendar is a B-25, one of my all-time favorite airplanes.
And not sullied by that awful-looking hard-nose with growling teeth — more ground-attack than bomber.
Worth a blog.
9,889 were built. My WWII warbirds site says the B-25 was the most widely used medium bomber during WWII.
It has two 1,700-horsepower Wright R-2600-92 Cyclone radial piston engines, and could carry 4,000 pounds of bombs.

As far as I know, this is a B-25J. No cannon; that’s the B25G. (Photo by Philip Makanna.)

In November of last year, Ghosts ran a Makanna picture of a hard-nosed toothy B-25, a B-25J — no cannon. The B-25G had the 75 mm cannon.
This B-25D looks much better.
The B-25 was versatile, and could be easily adapted.
They were kept on duty after the war ended, used for training and VIP transport; the final USAF B-25 was retired in 1960.
Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle lead a bombing raid on the Japanese mainland. It involved B-25s flying off the deck of the USS Hornet, an early aircraft-carrier.
The B-25s barely got in the air, and couldn’t return to the Hornet. They landed in China. (The Japanese then conducted a massive campaign against China.)
After the war, a B-25, lost in fog, crashed into the Empire State Building. 14 died; 11 in the building, three crew. The building still stands.
I remember a B-25 used as a camera plane for the first Cinerama movie.
Cinerama was wrap-around: triple cameras, then three projectors. It was pretty good, but the projectors could go out of register.
The triple cameras were set up in the bombardier quarters of a B-25, then the plane was flown up East River next to New York City under some of the bridges.
Exciting footage, but a single camera would have been fine.
According to my Warbirds site, about 34 B-25s are still airworthy. I’ve seen quite a few. I remember B-25s flying over as I drove to DE once. Probably a warbirds show in southeastern PA.

B-25 in Geneseo. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

A few years ago I attended a similar show in nearby Geneseo (“jen-uh-SEE-oh”). A B-25 flew in and landed, but only one. I’ve been to that show when four or five B-25s were on display.
They did pumpkin-drops. Pumpkins in the bomb-bay were dropped from low altitude into a target area. The closest pumpkin won.
I never modeled a B-25. I never could find a Revell® B-25. I had an Aurora B-26, but its wings drooped. Only the Revell® kits had interlocking wing-tabs.
Plus the B-25 was much prettier than a B-26.
I also remember Yossarian of “Catch-22” being terrified of duty in a B-25. People got shot up and killed — bloody gore everywhere.