Warbird Information Exchange

Hi all, while i was at airventure this year I wandered over to the museum and while there I noticed that their B-25 is an H model. Does anyone know why it doesn't have an H nose? Are there none around anymore? I would think that would be a wonderful way to set their B-25 apart from all the Js still around. I'm certainly not whining or anything i love seeing any Mitchell any variant, I'm more just curious.

It didn't keep the bomber nose for long after WWII, serving as an executive transport after the war. In the late 1960s it was modified to a bomber nose for the Catch-22 film.



Oddly though, I believe this is a photo of it under restoration by EAA in the 1970s, looking like it was going to get its bomber nose back.



But then when it appeared after restoration in the 1980s it had the bomber nose.



I agree it would be nice to see the H nose on it. Would be nice if it still flew, also!

There is one flying B-25H, "Barbie III" which divides its time between Florida and Vermont. The Mid-Atlantic Air Musuem displays a nice one, "Dog Daize." That's it for intact survivors in H configuration. The Kalamazoo Airzoo has another H that is restored as a gun-nose J.

http://aircraft-in-focus.com/north-amer ... -mitchell/

August

N10v flown by the late Lt. Col. Tom Mooney USMC (ret) in Catch 22, had one flight in it then.

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Thanks for the fast replies!! I always live seeing these planes in their former lives. I saw it at an airshow in Eden Prairie, MN many years back and have a couple pics of it with engines running. I wish I had taken a few more now that I know its static.

While yes that is a "Gun Nose" installed in the B-25, it's not the correct H model version. It's a J model Gun Nose.


New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks, CT. Not the MAAM in Reading, PA.

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How about the CAF's "Devil Dog"?

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B-25J with a J model Gun Nose. See below for comparison.


B-25J Gun Nose


B-25H Gun Nose

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Chicks Dig Warbirds.......right?

One reason why it may have a glass nose...IF they plan on flying it, the glass nose is a nice place for passengers and photographers.

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How about the CAF's "Devil Dog"?[/quote]


Devil dog is a J model with a gun nose

Right! Brain slip. I should read my own web page.

Of the several gun nose B-25Js still around, I suspect some have not authentic J-model gun noses, but just gun barrels stuck on postwar transport noses.

August

Two more supposedly intact survivors:
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25regis ... 34513.html
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25regis ... 34108.html
(Are there any known photos of the Alaska plane?)

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Years ago I mentioned to the fine folks over at the EAA that 10V was an H model, of which they were naturally aware of and not remotely interested in having an H model nose installed.

The B-25 N37L over at Kalamazoo is also dressed in J model drag when she is actually an H model.

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N10V was in fact an Executive transport. It was purchased and reconfigured as an exec by American socialite, and debutante, Barbara Hutton heiress to the Worthworth empire. She bought it for her boyfriend, a Dominican diplomat/International Playboy Porfirio Rubirosa called Rubi by his friends and lovers. He became Hutton's fifth husband.

While Rubirosa was married to Hutton, he was chasing Hungarian-born American socialite and actress, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Rubirosa flew the ship transoceanic in August 1954 to Cannes and again to Nice in 1955, on both trips Gabor was his "passenger". When Rubirosa wouldn't break off his desire for Gabor she had the B-25 sold. and so it was.

The tables near the blister windows were of rich wood, inlaid with gold. Wonder where those got off to...... She had a colorful history.

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I don't think I've ever seen a specifically designed civil transport nose for the B-25, just stock gun noses that were gutted with the barrel openings faired over..although I've seen a few with lengthened or pointy nose caps (and of course some postwar military Mitchells were fitted with radomes in the bomber nose, which made it a bit longer and pointier.) When the Air Zoo first acquired their Mitchell, it appeared to have a glass bomber nose with sheet metal covering. The shape was the same, and you could see lines of rivets following the original frames. I've always been told that when it was restored an original H-model nose couldn't be found (at least affordably) so a J gunship nose was substituted.

SN

Some of us at the museum would absolutely love to see an H-model nose installed on it, as well as an appropriate paint scheme. Maybe someday...

Zack

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