Many years ago I dropped bombs from our old SNB-1 (Navy version of the AT-11) which was a lot of fun. I tried to knock over the wind sock at Eagle Field. Although I hit the concrete base several times I never did that pole!
In 2003 I was approached by someone who wanted to do a documentary on the Norden Bomb sight. He wanted to video the sights in our museum as they are operational. I suggested that we could put a working sight in the nose of the B-25 Old Glory and actually drop bombs using a WWII bombardier. This is exactly what we did at NAS Fallon on their bombing range.
A bunch of friends and I volunteered to get the racks operational and the project went beautifully. Mark Rouch and I were wiring the racks late into the night having a great time.
I had the base commander of Fallon flying in the right seat as we made multiple runs on the bull’s eye. Our WWII bombardier C.O. Smith did a great job of bombing. The only problem was the guy doing the documentary. I guess he was pretty new at this sort of thing and didn’t get that many usable shots. Mark shot video out of the bomb bay and did a beautiful job. His shots were awesome as he captured everything from the doors opening to the bomb’s impact. The producer promised me that we would get copies of all of the footage shot and he never followed through on that. I guess his documentary never worked out, too bad after all that work.
In 2005 I was once again approached by a group who was also doing a documentary on the Norden and all of the developments of the war plane from the start to present day. I also mentioned to them what had done and what we could do and they were excited. Off we went to do it again but this time the production crew was for real and they represented PBS and National Geographic.
We were going back to Fallon and had everything all set but the day before we were to fly to the NAS the new base commander backed out on us. Here we were with a video crew from England, the B-25 all ready and no place to go. Thankfully Joe Davis came to the rescue and let us use Eagle Field. I believe that it worked out better as we were able to mark the target and go back to retrieve the bombs. We couldn’t have done that at Fallon as the range is only open for clearing a few times a year.
When dropping the bombs (Navy Mark 15 Mod 4 blue practice bombs) from the Beech SNB-1 at 1000 feet the gravel filled bombs would hit the dirt and skip with little damage save a dent in the nose and a bent fin or two. We could re use them 10 times or more before they started to come apart. In the B-25 at 3500 feet they hit with much greater force from the extra altitude and the 50 MPH increase in air speed and they really dug in.
The National Geographic video series was pretty good and was called Warplanes. It aired around the world.
Here is a video of a low level bomb run dropping 4 practice bombs from the B-25. Someday I will hit that pole! I imagine if I actually do knock it over Joe will not be very happy with me. I figure the safest place for someone to be is leaning against that pole. If you look close you can see the bombs skipping and tearing things up down range. I am sad to say that we actually took out a large Jack Rabbit with one of these 100 pounders on this run.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ztPRk-Pejlc
We really love getting the WWII systems and equipment working again. The next project is to get the WWII BC-375 and BC-348 Liaison transmitter and receiver up and running in the Collings B-24J along with some other turrets and systems. Then we are going to get some WWII radio operators and other crew members to make some Morse code and voice transmissions and let them do what they did in back in the day. The best part of all of this is to let the WWII folks re live some memories and let their kids and grand kids see what Grandpa and Grandma did back in WWII.
_________________
To donate to the PV-2D project via PayPal click here
http://www.twinbeech.com/84062restoration.htmWe brought her from:
to this in 3 months:
Help us get her all the way back
All donations are tax deductible as the Stockton Field Aviation Museum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Tell a friend as the Harpoon needs all the help she can get.
Thank you!
Taigh Ramey
Vintage Aircraft, Stockton, California
http://www.twinbeech.com'KEEP ‘EM FLYING…FOR HISTORY!'
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
) forgot to safety wire the SOBs to the racks and we dropped a few on the ramp at the Hillsboro airshow few years back. 
