19 August 1940: At Mines Field (now LAX), the first North American Aviation B-25 twin-engine medium bomber, serial number 40-2165, took off on its first flight with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls and engineer Roy Ferren in the co-pilot’s position. The airplane, with company model number NA-62, was developed from two earlier designs which had been evaluated by the U.S. Air Corps, and it was ordered into production without a prototype being built and tested. The first few B-25s built—sources vary, but 8–10 airplanes—were built with a constant dihedral wing. Testing at Wright Field showed that the airplane had a slight tendency to “Dutch roll”, so all B-25s after those were built with a “cranked” wing, giving it the characteristic “gull wing” appearance. The two vertical stabilizers were also increased in size. 40-2165 was retained by North American for testing while the next several aircraft were sent to Wright Field. The B-25 was named Mitchell in honor of early air power advocate Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. A total of 9,984 B-25s, F-10 reconnaissance variants and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps PBJ-1 patrol bombers were built by North American Aviation at Inglewood, California and Kansas City, Kansas. The last one, a TB-25J, remained in service with the U.S. Air Force until 1960. 23 B-25s were built before the B-25A Mitchell went into production. It was operated by a crew of five. Two 2,603.9-cubic-inch-displacement (42.67 liter) air-cooled, turbo-supercharged Wright Aeronautical Corporation R-2600-9 Twin Cyclone two-row 14-cylinder radial engines produced 1,700 horsepower each. The medium bomber had a maximum speed of 322 miles per hour and a service ceiling of 30,000 feet. It could carry a 3,000 pound bomb load 2,000 miles. After testing was completed, B-25 40-2165 was retained by North American and modified as a company transport. During a flight on 8 January 1945, it crash-landed. No one was hurt but the airplane was damaged beyond repair. r/max
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 22:00:00 +0000
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