Tag Archives: b-25

Technology

B-1B Ruptured Duck saved from the Boneyard, but it’ll never fly again!

Video

On 23FEB2021, a ‘divested’ B-1B bomber landed at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California, being saved from the ‘boneyard’ in Arizona, but never to fly again.

U.S. Air Force photo by May Straight.

The B-1B tail number 86-0099 arrived with Ruptured Duck artwork on the side.

USAF photo by May Straight.

Under the National Defense Authorization Act, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) is required to divest 17 B-1B Lancers (aka Bones) in order to justify buying the new B-21 Raider (a new version of the B-2).

USAF photo by Giancarlo Casem, 23FEB2021..

Ruptured Duck is now the new Edwards Aircraft Ground Integration Lab (EAGIL) static test aircraft.  It’s hoped the EAGIL program will save taxpayers money by reducing the costs of developing electronic upgrades for aircraft, compared to using flying test-beds.

USAF photo by Wesley Farnsworth, 17APR2017.

B-1B #86-0099 was named Ruptured Duck in 2017, on the 75th Anniversary of the Doolittle vengeance raid on Japan.  One of the B-25 Mitchell bombers in that raid was named Ruptured Duck:

Official video explainer:

Natural sound video, by Giancarlo Casem, of Ruptured Duck’s arrival on Edwards AFB:

‘Divestiture’: ANOTHER B-1B ‘BONE’ SENT TO THE BONEYARD! IS THE END NEAR?

Technology

B-25: Old Glory goes down for the 2nd time

Video

California farm field, 19SEP2020. Photo by San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

After spending most of the year flying at various locations across the United States, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two (click this link to see pics and video interview with current owner), a B-25 Mitchell named Old Glory (44-28938) cashed, for the second time in its post-war career.

Photo via San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

According to California’s San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, on 19SEP2020 the crew of Old Glory reported a mechanical problem and made an emergency landing in a Stockton farm field.  The emergency landing turned into a crash landing after the old bomber got tripped-up by an irrigation ditch.  The three crewmen suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Photo via San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

News reports stated that this was the second time the restored combat veteran had crashed.  The first time was near Reno, Nevada, in 1987.  The dedicated owners spent 18-thousand hours repairing and restoring the damaged B-25, completing the job in 1995.  It was then that B-25N 44-28938 got the name Old Glory.

Old Glory on Honolulu, Hawaii, 25AUG2020. U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Gabriel Davis.

Towards the end of 2019, Old Glory was purchased by The Prescott Foundation-Hanger743 of New York.  During WW2 it operated over the Mediterranean with the 12th Army Air Force (specific squadron still unknown).  Following the war it was converted to TB-25N radio navigation trainer, then to a waterbomber.  In 1978, B-25N 44-28938 began its current career as a flying museum exhibit, under the pseudonyms Dream Lover and Spirit of Tulsa.

Old Glory take-off in Hawaii, end of August 2020, video by Austin Rooney.  Unfortunately there is no audio:

The Prescott Foundation states they are cooperating with the NTSB’s (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation into the crash of Old Glory.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Ryan J. Sonnier, 16SEP2019.

What it is like flying on Old Glory, end of August 2020, video by Private Carlie Lopez (edited by me):

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Jaimar Carson Bondurant.

This link has pics and vid of Old Glory being off loaded from a big U.S. Navy boat, for a big taxpayer funded air show.

COLD WAR S-A-C FLEW WORLD WAR TWO B-25 MITCHELLS

B-25 FLAMIN’ MAIMIE WAS AS COLD AS ICE!

B-25 ¡PANCHITO!

Technology

Cold War S-A-C flew World War Two B-25 Mitchells

Video

SAC=Strategic Air Command

These photos were taken in the late 1950s by the father-in-law to Russel Sharp.

Russel Sharp (the guy in the uniform) was a crew chief (aka maintainer) and flight engineer on B-25s flown by SAC, out of Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.

Between 1954 and 1959, U.S. Air Force SAC used the World War Two U.S. Army Air Force B-25 Mitchells as trainers for incoming nuclear bomber crews.  Doctor John Garrett, 17th Training Wing historian, explains that “This specific aircraft was built in 1944 and was converted in 1945 from a bomber to a trainer model. It flew as a trainer until 1959 and its last years were in Dyess. This plane was kept downtown in San Angelo, and in 1983 Charlie Powell, former wing commander, rescued it from San Angelo.”

U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Scott Jackson, 02AUG2017.

On 02AUG2017, Russel Sharp returned to Goodfellow AFB to check-out the B-25 gate guard installed near Jacobson Gate.  Going by the tail number it is the same B-25 that Sharp spent more than 9-hundred hours flying on.   Sharp said the connection was made when an old Air Force buddie saw the gate guard and was sure the tail number was the same.

Video interview by Airman First Class Jessica Ray:

B-25 FLAMIN’ MAIMIE WAS AS COLD AS ICE!

Technology

B-25 Flamin’ Maimie was as cold as ice!

Image

Before there was NASA, there was NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics).  Photos from the NASA archives.

Looks to be Flamin’ Maimie before NACA’s many modifications. NACA photo, 1947.

NACA had a XB-25E called Flamin’ Maimie.  If you look up Flamin’ Maimie you’ll get a couple of dominant results; a jazz song from the 1920s by the band The Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, and a big-hair female track team from Abilene, Texas, who became the first female sports team to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, in 1964.

NASA photo, 1947.

While the jazz-dance song and the track team were about ‘hot’ women, NACA’s Flamin’ Maimie was about being as cold as ice.

NASA photo, 1947.

Originally the XB-25E was used by the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) from 1942-44.  It was a modified B-25C.  The hot exhaust gasses were routed through the flying surfaces of the bomber.  It was successful, but apparently the USAAF decided the added weight of the hot air de-icing system wasn’t justified.  In July 1944, NACA became the new owner of Flamin’ Maimie.

NASA photo, 1949.

NACA added these protruding therm-o-meters.

NASA photo, 1950.

NACA used Flamin’ Maimie to study new de-icing technologies, and the processes which caused aircraft to collect ice.  The program operated out of Ohio, from the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (now known as NASA Glenn Research Center), until 1953.

NASA photo, 1950.

The NACA pressure icing rate meter data recorder used in the XB-25E.

NACA’s diagram of de-icers on B-25, dated 1946.

I was not able to find any information as to what happened to XB-25E Flamin’ Maimie, other than NACA “transferred” it in February 1953.

B-25 ¡PANCHITO!

Technology

After 75 years the War is still over!

Video

U.S. Navy photos by Petty Officer Second Class Jessica Blackwell, Petty Officer Second Class Kenneth Rodriguez, Petty Officer Third Class Christina Ross, Petty Officer Third Class Wesley Richardson, and Seaman Jaimar Carson Bondurant.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in the Pacific, the United States military is assembling surviving WW2 aircraft at Pearl Harbor (aka Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham), Hawaii.

Most of the airplanes were sailed-in aboard the USS Essex-LHD 2.  Video by Petty Officer Second Class Kenneth Rodriguez:

Some of you might say that the low-wing twin-engined aircraft, parked next to the PBY Catalina,  is not from World War Two, and you’re correct.  The USS Essex was also delivering a C-12U Huron to the Hawaiian Air National Guard.  Hawaii Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Andrew Jackson.

An old pre-war Boeing Stearman–Kaydet, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 26JUL2020.

Kaydet load-up, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 26JUL2020.  Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

The workhorse U.S. training aircraft of WW2 is the T-6 Texan, known as SNJ in the U.S. Navy/Marines.  The aircraft was so successful it was used decades after the war ended, by various countries around the world.

T-6/SNJ load-up aboard USS Essex at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 25JUL2020. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

This Texan is in U.S. Air Force markings, which is post-WW2 as the USAF was created in September 1947, two years after WW2 ended.

Video, T-6/SNJ off-loaded in Hawaii, 10AUG2020:

More T-6/SNJ off-load videos, 10AUG2020:

Commemorative Air Force (originally known as Confederate Air Force) FM-2 (General Motors version of F4F) Wildcat.

Video, Wildcat upload, load-up aboard USS Essex at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 27JUL2020. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

P-51D Mustang.

Video, P-51D upload, load-up aboard USS Essex at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 27JUL2020. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

Video, P-51D off-load in Hawaii, 11AUG2020:

B-25 Mitchell.  

U.S. Navy photo by Shannon Haney, 10AUG2020.

U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant. Anthony Nelson Junior, 10AUG2020.

The U.S. Army Air Force’s B-25 was the first U.S. aircraft to bomb Japan, flown off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet-CV 8 (The Doolittle Raid).   B-25 off-load video by Petty Officer Second Class Jessica Blackwell:

U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Ryan Jenkins, 25AUG2020.

Less than one month later, ‘Old Glory’ crashed in California.

The F8F Bearcat was developed during the war, but the war ended before it could be used in battle.

Bearcat load-up, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 26JUL2020.  Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

Video, F8F off-load in Hawaii, 11AUG2020:

TBM Avenger.

Video, Avenger off-load:

At the end of July a PBY Catalina arrived at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego.  Video by Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Jones:

Loading a Catalina onboard USS Essex, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

Another PBY arrives at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 29JUL2020, gets hoisted aboard USS Essex.

PBY Catalina in Hawaii, 12AUG2020. Video by Petty Officer Second Class Lexie Perez:

The 75th WW2 Commemoration has been ongoing since May (the end of the war in Europe) and will conclude in September (the end of the war in Pacific). 

Here’s a music video explainer edited by Kevin Dawson:

B-25 ¡PANCHITO!

T-6 Texans; the first Airborne Hurricane Hunters

SALVAGING F4U CORSAIRS

HOW TO PAINT YOUR 1:1 SCALE B-17 MEMPHIS BELLE WITH ‘PERIOD CORRECT’ PAINT

Kit Bashing

B-25 ¡Panchito!

Video

U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Madeline Herzog, 02APR2022.

Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, 02APR2022.

Panchito = A derogatory name

New Jersey Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Matt Hecht, 14MAY2016.

Panchito is a North American B-25J-25-NC Mitchell built in the last year of World War Two. Through the 1950s it was used for training.  In the 1960s it became water bomber ‘Tanker 32’.  In the early 1970s it was a bug sprayer called Big Bertha.  Since the mid-70s it was a museum bird, finally becoming Panchito in the late 1990s.  That information pertains to the specific aircraft currently flying, the original Panchito flew bombing missions over Okinawa during the summer of 1945, and then was apparently buried in a Filipino ‘grave’, with a whole bunch of taxpayer funded aircraft, when the war ended. 

USAF video report from June 2007, about Panchito:

In 1981, Monogram Models Incorporated issued their fine 1:48 scale B-25J Mitchell kit, with markings for the original Panchito (which has a different tail code than today’s Panchito).  Unfortunately Monogram didn’t include any historical info about the plane (except for a small blurb on the side of the box-top).

U.S. Air Force photo by Roland Balik, 27AUG2017.

27AUG2017, Dover AFB air show, Delaware.

U.S. Air Force photo by R.J. Oriez, 17APR2017.

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 17APR2017.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Valentina Lopez, 21SEP2016.

Manassas Regional Airport, Virginia, 21SEP2016

New Jersey Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Matt Hecht, 14MAY2016.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, 14MAY2016.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Mackenzie Gibson, 29APR2016.

Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, 29APR2016.

Kentucky Air National Guard photo by Lieutenant Colonel Dale Greer, 22APR2017.

Louisville, Kentucky, 22APR2017.

USMC photo by Corporal Orlando Perez, 04MAY2012.

MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, 04MAY2012.

Video, start-up, taxi, take-off, return:

Take-off video from April 2012:

 

VEHICLE I-D: AIRBORNE HURRICANE HUNTERS, WHEN DID IT ALL START?

RF-84F THUNDERFLASH & YRF-84F, AN APPEAL TO MONOGRAM!

F-8 DFBW, OR ANOTHER REASON WHY TODAY’S TECHIE GENERATION OWES THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!

C-47 DAKOTA/SKYTRAIN, DOUGLAS COMMERCIAL-3, R4D GOONIES!

Technology, U.S.

Airborne Hurricane Hunters, when did it all start?

Video

The first hurricane (typhoon) hunter was a pilot flying a Second World War T-6 Texan through the eye of a hurricane, on a dare!  Realizing that flying through a hurricane was doable, the U.S. Air Force set upon a long journey of modifying aircraft to collect weather data about hurricanes.

The first data collected, in 1944 by B-25 bombers (WB-25 Army Hurricane Reconnaissance Unit), is credited with saving hundreds of lives.  Prior to the development of airborne hurricane hunters, thousands of people in the United States died as a result of hurricanes, but after the use of flying weather trackers the average death toll dropped significantly.

Painting by Thomas Wojahn of a WB-50 of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Falcon Alpha Mission-1957.

Perhaps the name The Hurricane Hunters came from the the title of a book first published in 1955 about the U.S. military’s obsession with tracking hurricanes. Download your free copy here.

Silent U.S. Navy film, from 1961, showing the use of the EC-121 Warning Star (WV-2) ‘AWACS’ as a hurricane hunter:

Hunter AFB, WB-47E City of Savannah Hurricane Hunter I, September 1963.

Even the B-47 strategic bomber (WB-47) was used as a Hurricane Hunter.

WC-130 Hercules f the 815th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 920th Weather Reconnaissance Group, being prepared for a mission to monitor Hurricane Allen, August 1980.

Official USAF video history report, including the T-6, B-25, B-29 (WB-50) and C-130:

A USAF WC-130 Hercules from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, ‘Hurricane Hunters’, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. USAF photo dated 1995.

But it not just lives that are saved with the creation of airborne hurricane hunters, in this 2018 video report about the purpose of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi) it’s revealed that mass evacuations of the public cost one-million USD per mile of coastline!  Taxpayer costs can be reduced by providing accurate weather data to allow for more timely evacuation orders:

HurricaneHunters.com

WC-130J & WP-3D: HUNTING DORIAN

T-6 SNJ TEXAN POKEY AIRPORT, 2012 & 2014