How to fly a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber

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How to fly a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber

Post by Niner » Thu Feb 14, 2019 12:06 pm

This is a left over from 1944 instructional movie of how to fly a B-25. Notice how a ground crew guy stands by with a super sized fire extinguisher when the engines are started....shows you how much faith the Navy, that used them at least once, famously, off of aircraft carriers, and the Army Air Corp had in the machinery. It seems like a lot of procedure and switches and dials and gauges to pay attention to in the presentation. No wonder there was a check list. And just think... 19 and 20 year old kids with maybe a high school education became expert flyers during WWII in these planes ...while being shot at from the ground and the air from enemy fighter planes in combat zones.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1kQzIolmIc
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Re: How to fly a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber

Post by Niner Delta » Thu Feb 14, 2019 7:12 pm

It was the Army Air Corps from 1926 until 1941, then it was the Army Air Forces until 1947,
when it was no longer part of the Army and became the US Air Force.
The reason for the fire extinguishers is the same reason they had them for almost every radial
engine startup for every plane in all the military services. And it's the same reason that you see
men turning the props by hand before engine startup in old videos/movies.
Radial engines can accumulate oil in the lower cylinders after sitting, so rotating the props
by hand help eliminate the oil. Starting the engine with oil in cylinders can damage the engines
and start fires, which makes pilots into pedestrians.... or even worse....grunts......... :mrgreen:
The B-29 was likely the worst for start-up engine fires, it's twin-row 18-cylinder Wright Cyclone R-3350-23
also had a lot of magnesiumin it for weight reduction. And we all know once magnesium is burning,
there is almost no putting it out.
The B-25s in the Doolittle Raid in April, 1942 was an experiment that the Navy wasn't too sure about,
but since it was Army pilots that would die and not Navy pilots on the Hornet, the Navy said,
Sure, why not give it a try... ;)

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Re: How to fly a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber

Post by Niner » Thu Feb 14, 2019 7:29 pm

That's right Vern. The Doolittle raid was Army Air Force guys taking off on a flattop carrier. They bombed Japan and ran out of fuel in China afterward as I recall. But the film says thanks to the Navy for producing it. So that's how I got off course.
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Re: How to fly a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber

Post by Niner Delta » Fri Feb 15, 2019 9:26 pm

They had to take off of the USS Hornet about 200 miles further from Japan than they had planned,
because they had been spotted by a Japanese picket boat that radioed their position before the
light cruiser Nashville sank it.

A few months later the Hornet fought at the Battle of Midway, and then 6 months after the Doolittle
Raid, the Hornet was sunk near the Solomon Islands in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

Last month an undersea research vessel, the R/V Petrel, found the wreck of the Hornet over 17,000
feet down using robot subs. That's over 3 miles straight down.... :shock: There are photos of it if you Google it.
The Hornet was only in service for one year and one week.

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Peace is that brief, quiet moment in history.......... when everybody stands around reloading.
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