AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 43 / 104

Plate 43 of 104 · Second World War · Medium bomber

North American B-25 Mitchell

B-25J-30-NC, painted as 44-31171, a North American B-25J-30-NC Mitchell built at Kansas City with two Wright R-2600 Cyclone radials, later converted to a TB-25J and used by RCA as a flying test laboratory, flown to Britain in 1970 as N7614C for air-to-air film work, delivered to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in October 1976 and now hung in the American Air Museum, painted as it is shown there in the colours of 43-4064 ‘Lil Critter From The Moon’ of the 488th Bomb Squadron, 340th Bomb Group, Joseph Heller’s squadron: olive drab over neutral grey, red cowling rings and propeller hubs, the star and bar on both fuselage sides, above the port wing and below the starboard wing, a white ‘8U’ and yellow ‘34064’ on the outer faces of the fins, the nose art on the port side of the nose, the glazed bombardier nose with one gun, the Martin dorsal turret, waist and tail guns, and black three-blade propellers with yellow tips; it hangs gear-up in the museum but is shown on its undercarriage, the nose art is simplified, and no photograph shows the upper wing surfaces, so the insignia there is assumed.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 44-31171, a North American B-25J-30-NC Mitchell built at Kansas City with two Wright R-2600 Cyclone radials, later converted to a TB-25J and used by RCA as a flying test laboratory, flown to Britain in 1970 as N7614C for air-to-air film work, delivered to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in October 1976 and now hung in the American Air Museum, painted as it is shown there in the colours of 43-4064 ‘Lil Critter From The Moon’ of the 488th Bomb Squadron, 340th Bomb Group, Joseph Heller’s squadron: olive drab over neutral grey, red cowling rings and propeller hubs, the star and bar on both fuselage sides, above the port wing and below the starboard wing, a white ‘8U’ and yellow ‘34064’ on the outer faces of the fins, the nose art on the port side of the nose, the glazed bombardier nose with one gun, the Martin dorsal turret, waist and tail guns, and black three-blade propellers with yellow tips; it hangs gear-up in the museum but is shown on its undercarriage, the nose art is simplified, and no photograph shows the upper wing surfaces, so the insignia there is assumed. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.3 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the B-25J-30-NC modelled here.

History

The Mitchell

The Mitchell grew out of a US Army Air Corps competition of 1939 for a twin-engined attack bomber. North American’s entry, the NA-40, flew in January 1939 and was lost in a crash that April, but the Army liked the design enough to order a larger, faster development straight off the drawing board in September 1939, without a prototype. The first B-25 flew on 19 August 1940. It was a shoulder-winged twin with two Wright Twin Cyclones, twin fins and a tricycle undercarriage, and it was named after General Billy Mitchell, the outspoken champion of American air power.

Early aircraft had a level wing; from the tenth onwards the dihedral was taken out of the outer panels to cure a tendency to wander, which gave the Mitchell its gull-winged look from the front. On 18 April 1942 sixteen B-25Bs led by Lt Col James Doolittle took off from the carrier USS Hornet and bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities, a raid of little material effect but great consequence for morale on both sides. The Mitchell went on to fight in every theatre: in the Pacific it was turned into a low-level strafer with up to fourteen forward-firing guns, and one version carried a 75 mm cannon in its nose.

The B-25J was the most numerous model, with about 4,300 built at Kansas City. It brought back the glazed bombardier’s nose and kept the B-25H’s layout, with the Martin dorsal turret just behind the cockpit and waist and tail guns. In all 9,816 Mitchells were built. The RAF received about 900, flying them with No. 2 Group from Norfolk and later from the Continent, and the US Navy and Marine Corps flew it as the PBJ. After the war B-25s trained a generation of American pilots, and the type served on with smaller air forces into the 1970s; dozens still fly.

This airframe

B-25J-30-NC 44-31171, painted as 43-4064 “Lil Critter From The Moon”

44-31171The airframe modelled

44-31171 was built at Kansas City as a B-25J-30 and spent its post-war years as a trainer and test aircraft, converted in turn to TB-, EB- and JTB-25J standard. Stored at Davis-Monthan in 1957, it was bought by the Radio Corporation of America, which flew it as a test laboratory with a modified nose, and from 1966 it was a film camera ship registered N7614C. It came to Britain in 1970 for air-to-air filming, was stored at Luton and Shoreham, and reached Duxford by road in October 1976. Restored for static display with a standard B-25J nose, it was shown for some years as a US Marine Corps PBJ-1J, and now hangs in the American Air Museum painted as 43-4064 “Lil Critter From The Moon” of the 488th Bomb Squadron, 340th Bomb Group, Joseph Heller’s squadron in Corsica. The model shows it in olive drab over neutral grey, with red cowling rings and propeller hubs, the star and bar, the code 8U and serial 34064 on the fins, the nose art on the port side of the nose, the glazed nose, the Martin dorsal turret, and waist and tail guns. It hangs with its wheels up; the model stands it on its undercarriage.

See it at IWM Duxford

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Mitchell in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 104 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.