B-25 detail pictures

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

As people have been asking, I have been posting photos from a WW II B-25 maintenance manual I have had for many years. As is the case with many good things it was found in a drawer of a second hand bureau by a friend of mine in the used furniture business. I decided to make a job of posting many of the photos that would be useful to modeler types on my web site. I ended up with 67 pages, many of which have several photos, and some few that are what I thought would be informative text, such as a complete description of the lighting on the exterior. North American put a great deal of effort in to this book, I wish I had had something like it for the aircraft I have worked on. Some of the images are useful for other aircraft, such as detail on armament. There is coverage of the lower remote turret that was also used on the early B-17E.

Here is the link to the index page, I hope it can be of use. I plan to use the site myself, as the book itself will last longer with minimum handling.

http://www.yolo.net/~jeaton/Propplanes/b25/b25.htm

2

Thanks… I bookmarked your site. The engine detail shots are great, and quite useful for other aircraft, namely the A20, SB2C,TBF/M, and PBM.

3

Those are some great refference pictures! Thanks for the link! The B-25 was always a favorite of mine. My Dad worked on them in the Pacific Theater, 5th AAF. He was in on some of the early gunship mods on A-20s and B-25s.

4

It’s like a Hane’s manual (or better yet, for you Veedubbers a Bently manual hehe) for the B-25!!! What a find! Thanks for all the stuff, John!

5

Thanks, John, that is great. You’ve given me a present for my F-in-law next time I see him, which won’t be til after Reno. He’s still making the trip at 88 piloting his RV the Miss Billi III, and no I’m not invited, because he wouldn’t be comfortable chewing the fat with the other old war birds with babies around his ankles.

But last month I spent a week with him, and heard a new story, which is about a 1 in 10 proposition, but worth it.

After he enlisted in the Army, wanting to be a photographer, and was deemed to be a good prospect for crew chief, he made a long and circuitous trip from 12/8/41 in Salinas CA to March of 43 in Tunisia. 12th AF, 414 Night Fighters.

They were issued Bristol Beaufighters, radar equipped, at that time the best NF in the AAF. As compared to the P-70. What brought this particular story to the surface was that I lent him my copies of Air and Space from this year, and after I came home from dinner with his daughter, he asked me about a story about vertigo and disorientation.

While they were training in England, they experienced a number of losses in training flights.

(I think I read in that article that 12,000 aircrew were lost in WW2 in training flights. Imagine that).

One significant problem was instrument lighting, or lack thereof. The Beau had a system,but it involved twisting a little ring with gloves on, and was really dim.

He hopped on his motorcycle and rode forty miles to a B-25 base, where he traded something or other for two sets of the column mounted flourescent lights shown in your book. Fitted them on the “old man’s” and his “own” a/c. After the next mission the CO called him up and demanded to know the story, upon hearing which he flew the two of them back to the bomber base and they got a dozen more sets.

He’s very proud of the fact that he was later addressed in front of the squadron and told that he probably saved 100 lives.

I’m going to print this out and send it to him.

Thanks again,

Bill

6

I want to add my humble thanks to you as well, John! Your website is an outstanding reference tool and this makes it all the richer. I truly appreciate your giving of your time to all of us in authoring and maintaining your site. Bravo, John, Bravo! [bow] [bow]

Brian [C):-)]