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The Tokyo Raider That Never Was

C

casey jones

Charter Member
Shortly after New Year's Day January 1942, Lt Col Doolittle sent a teletype to the Material Division at Wright Field asking that one B-25B airplane be sent to Midcontinent Airlines Of Minneapolis Minnesota to arrive no later then January 23, 1942. This B-25B would be the first airplane to be installed with long range bombay tanks and the Martin rubber tank that would fit into the fuslage in the rear of the plane. On Tuesday morining at 1133 hrs, Jan 27, 1942 a B-25C AAF #112435 with Lt Carter USAAF at the controls set down at the Mpls airport and taxied to the Midcontinet mantainence hangar just north of the field. The B-25C had arrived from "PK" which is a code used for airports back in the 1930s and 40s...but since this B-25C was the second production model to come off the North American production line after the prototype B-25C had crashed it was new and was flown from North American. On Saturday afternoon at 1216 hrs , January 31, 1942, Lt Col Doolittle landed at Wold-Chamberlin Field in a Army P-40C, AAF #0324, he was driven over to the Midcontinent Hangar where the B-25C was now inside the hangar out of the cold. There he met with Mr Benjamin Krouse supervisor of overhaul and maintenance for the airline. The drawings and blueprints for the long range bombay tanks were reviewed by both of them, the Martin rubber tanks would be shipped in from the US Rubber Company out of Indianna.
The bombay tanks were made for the B-25C and installed...but when the remaining B-25B airplanes arrived from the 17th Bomb Group, the bombay tanks would not fit...the B-25C and B-25B were almost identical on the outside, but the bombays of the two were very differant as one of the two were either too wide or too small, the process had to begin again, the B-25C was pushed out of the hangar and left there as new bombay tanks had to be remanufactuered for the B-25B, long after the work was done this B-25C just sat there for months, at this point the airplane disappeared. I have attemped for years to locate this B-25C, I could find no photograhs of it, former North American employees could not find any record of it, the P-40C that Lt Col Doolittle used there is no photographs of it other then a retired AAF crew chief who wrote in AF magazine that he had worked on it. All of the above information came from the official airport tower log of which I now have the original, and interviews I conducted with the Midcontinent Airlines personnel in 1985. I am happy to share this information with all as there may be someone out there who may know more.

Cheers

Casey
 
What...

...do North American Aircraft and DoD records say happened to this aircraft?

Her serial number (from the tail number you gave) is 41-12435, which decodes to the 12,435th aircraft contracted in 1941.

The same question begs of the P-40, serial number 40-324. :wavey:
 
Tango,

The B-25C was AAF #112435, it was the second B-25C off the production line, the prototype crashed.

Cheers PS The P-40C or B serial number 0324:wavey:

Casey
 
No, no, no.....

casey jones said:
The B-25C was AAF #112435, it was the second B-25C off the production line, the prototype crashed. Cheers PS The P-40C or B serial number 0324
Click to expand...

Read my last post again. I gave you the serial numbers for these aircraft. The tail number is the serial number less the first number, which is the decade...in this case 40s or 4.

Each manufacturer as well as the DoD keeps track of the fate of each serial number. You can contact North American (now Boeing) or the Dept of Defense to find out where these aircraft ended up. All it will take you is a phone call or email to Boeing.

I was a B-52 crewdog and they gave me a complete list of every B-52 ever built and it's current status.
:ernae:
 
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