Warbird Information Exchange

WWII B-25 out in cold after being kicked out of hangar
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/29/2008 12:36:15 AM PDT

VAN NUYS - When wildfires swept around the San Fernando Valley earlier this month, Mike Pupich scrambled together the crew of his B-25J Mitchell bomber.

He knew his historic Heavenly Body aircraft at Van Nuys Airport was being thrashed by wind, ash and dust.

"I wanted to cry," said Pupich, 77, of San Fernando after surveying damage to the World War II war bird, which in vain had been covered by tarps. "But what else can I do? All I want to do is save our plane."

For 36 years, the bomber babe had been berthed inside a huge hangar at the world's busiest general aviation airport.

But on Oct. 4, what may be the world's best surviving B-25 was forced out on the tarmac to make way for a new commercial jet hangar.

Though there are five empty hangars at Van Nuys Airport big enough to accommodate their plane, they say airport officials have refused to rent them, even temporarily, to a war veteran that once served as a centerpiece for airport tours.

"We've contributed a lot to this airport," Pupich said. "They could've accommodated us. Instead, we get kicked out."

Airport officials say they've done everything they can to find a place for the vintage bomber.

No hangar for B-25

The airport leases hangars to corporations, not individual aircraft owners like Pupich, they said. The empty hangars have been leased to an incoming tenant and can't be given over to the B-25.

"There are more than 30 historic aircraft at VNY and each has been able to find a hangar," said Selena Birk, general manager for the airport. "We have identified a dozen possible tenants for them, on their behalf, and contacted a half-dozen airports in Southern California.
"The problem is that they are price-sensitive. They have a home (on the tarmac at VNY) - it's just not their preferred location."

As a kid in South Los Angeles, Pupich first "flew" a B-25 bomber from his parent's couch with a silver platter serving as his pilot's yoke.

Thirty-six years ago, he managed to buy a 29,000-pound B-25 vintage vixen and movie veteran of "Catch-22" for the price of a fully loaded Cadillac.

Today, the green-and-gray B-25J, fashioned after the Heavenly Body of the 13th Air Force, 42nd Bomb Group, is among the finest flying examples in the world.

Of 10,000 B-25s built more than six decades ago, it's one of 40 to rumble through the sky, burning 150 gallons of fuel an hour. On its Web site, nearly 1,500 fans have signed a petition to keep it at Van Nuys Airport.

Elements take their toll

But three weeks in the sun have caused its rubber to begin to harden, its fabric flight controllers to dry out and its acrylic plastic to crack like a sunlit spider web.

On a hot day, its cockpit - with its framed picture of Rita Hayworth surrounded by 14 machine guns and rare radios, bomb sites and rear turret - can reach 140 degrees.

"Being outside is death to an airplane, especially a World War II airplane," said Pupich, looking up Tuesday at thousands of dollars in damage to its canopy and turret. "It's devastating."

The problem for Pupich and his 10 crew members is money and the vast distances to another suitable airport.

For decades, they rented a cavernous hangar for less than $900 a month to stow the 68-foot-long bomber. A comparable hangar at Van Nuys Airport can cost $6,000 a month.

But with their hangar to be razed for jets, and nearby airports too small or too close to corrosive ocean air to accommodate the bomber, there's no affordable safe place to park the plane within reach of its dedicated crew.
"If it moved to Bakersfield or Chino, it would pretty much be the end of my involvement, (considering) the price of gas," said its co-pilot and inspector, Tony Ast of Santa Clarita. "It would be sad to see it go."