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Price: $149.95
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Warplanes brings and introduces you a finely handcrafted B-25B
Mitchell airplane model made of the finest grade materials which
underwent stages of meticulous and careful sanding, carving and
modeling to its original form. Our highly skilled master craftsmen
painstakingly and passionately worked on the B-25B Mitchell scale
model airplane's details, ensuring exactness and precision based on
the original airplane.
B-25B Mitchell History:
The North American B-25 Mitchell was an American twin-engined medium
bomber designed by John Leland "Lee" Atwood and named after General
Billy Mitchell. It was the only American military aircraft named
after a specific person.
Beginning with the 65th Mitchell, the B-25B (NA-62B) version was
introduced on the production line at Inglewood. It differed from the
B-25A primarily in having a much heavier defensive armament,
dictated by the results of combat reports coming in from Europe. The
most readily-noticeable difference was the introduction on the B-25B
of a Bendix L-type power-operated turret installed on the top of the
rear fuselage which carried a pair of 0.50-inch machine guns. In
addition, a pair of 0.50-inch machine guns were mounted in a solid
Bendix remotely-controlled ventral turret. This turret could be
retracted into the belly when not in use, the gun barrels fitting
into slots in the fuselage when the turret was in the fully up
position. The crew was five--pilot, copilot, bombardier/nose gunner,
navigator/upper turret gunner, and radio operator/belly turret
gunner. The length was reduced from 54 feet 1 inch on the B-25A to
52 feet 11 inches on the B-25B. The additional defensive armament of
the B-25B caused the the weight to creep up to 20,000 pounds empty
and 28,460 pounds fully loaded, resulting in another degradation in
performance. Maximum speed was now down to 300 mph at 15,000 feet.
The first 14 B-25Bs were accepted in August of 1941. The 17th
Bombardment group was the first to get the B-25B. By the time of
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, North American had delivered 130
bombers. With the completion of the last of 120 B-25Bs in January of
1942, North American met the initial contract for 184 NA-62
aircraft.
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