TB-25J/K/L/M Postwar Trainers

[gale_dono]

How many of the surviving B-25's remain as converted trainers? I understand that Panchito has been de-converted to a stock J-I'd be curious to know how common that is as well

Beyond that, how much documentation exists of their postwar use? To the average person it's not exactly exciting, but it really is quite fascinating to me-the idea of something built for one war training the men for the one that was believed to be yet to come. There are a few good official USAF pictures of them, but that's only really good for external details-I'm wondering what these looked like inside, how they differed from the typical "bomber" B-25.

[A26 Special K]

The Hayes conversions to trainers was vitally important to the survival of the B25's that are still around. Otherwise, they would have gone to the scrapheap like the rest of the WWII bombers. I fly Pacific Prowler and it was one of these. Mainly, the guns and turrets were all removed, two student seats were installed in the area just aft of the forward entrance hatch where the upper turret was removed. We still have them and have not replaced the turret although we have one. These seats allow us to have "first class" for moving crew members and helpers around to airshows. In the back, just aft of the bomb bay, the radio sets were removed and up front, the bomb sight was taken out. Somewhat more modern radios were installed so that the pilots could operate them up front as needed. The airplanes were still plentiful, low time, made good stable trainers and were popular as VIP transports for the Brass after the war. Some were also converted to nav and radar trainers. One of my old instructors was given multi engine training in the B25 at Reese AFB. He later went into the B47, EC-47 because of his round engine experience and then the EC-135. He started out in the AF as a B36 gunner and it was his airplane that was used in making the Jimmy Stewart movie about Strategic Air Command filmed at Carswell AFB back in the early 50's. Pacific Prowler was furloughed in 1959 and ended up being bought by the Tallmantz company to become a camera ship for making movies. She filmed over 80 and appeared in 3. "Catch 22" to "Memphis Belle" was shot from the Prowler although Tallmantz did not do the last several since it was owned by another company by that time. Both Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz had gone west by that time. Jim R

[Jack Frost]

When I went through Basic Multi-engine Training at Vance AFB from Oct 1953 to April 1954 the B-25s were all J models although the Hayes conversions were coming on line about the time I was finishing up. The inside of the cover of my "Classbook" has a ramp photo from before my time there and all of the aircraft had the top turret still installed. The turrets were all gone when I was there but the aircraft still had the original armor plate pilot seats "uncomfprtable", the "Coffee Grinder" LF Range reciever, 7-channel pushbutton VHF reciever and the original ADF reciever. Some also had the early VOR/ILS reciever in them. In fact the first ILS I had ever made was on my final Instrument Check and we went down to OKC to do it since the USAF hadn't really bought into the ILS system. But the turrets were gone and the two "First Class" seats were installed.

Jack Frost

[Coert Munk]

Hi,

You can find documentation on the postwar use of the B-25 in several books. "The Ultimate Look" is one of these books showing details, and the "Magnificent Medium" is another exemple. Scott Thompson's book "B-25 Mitchell in Civil Service" contains a listing of all existing B-25s with details per aircraft, incl. conversions. In at least one USAF manual there's a list showing the serials of all B-25s that were converted by Hayes. I checked several sources in order to trace details of the use of our B-25 44-29507.

Coert

[Invader26]

My old Mitchell was a TB-25J modified by Hayes. Very little stuff removed. The later ones with radar etc had more extensive mods.

[Chris Brame]

Most original for a TB-25N is probably this one:

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25regis ... 29812.html

Went straight from Davis-Monthan to display for several decades, then to Aero Trader. There was a thread once (about that photographer who uses strange lighting for old stuff he finds in the desert) that had a couple interior shots and it looked intact.

[airnutz]

Do you mean Troy from lostamerica.com?