North American B-25 Mitchell

Video from the channel Aviación Uruguaya about North American B-25 Mitchell, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 11:04. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

An informational piece from the Aviación Uruguaya channel about the North American B-25 Mitchell, named in honor of General William Mitchell: its development, its main variants, its use in World War II and its time in the Uruguayan Air Force. For this last part it draws on an article published on the Piloto Viejo website.

The B-25 derives from the NA-40 prototype, delivered in March 1939 for evaluation and destroyed during testing by a piloting error. It was followed by the NA-62, completed in September 1939, with a mid-mounted wing, pilot and co-pilot seated side by side, and Wright R-2600 Cyclone engines of 1,700 hp. The first B-25 flew in August 1940. The bomber became famous with the raid of April 18, 1942, when 16 aircraft commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle took off from the carrier USS Hornet to attack Japan and then continued on to China. It was also used by the RAF in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, and by the Soviet Union.

After the first 24 examples came the B-25A, with armor and self-sealing fuel tanks, and the B-25B, with dorsal and ventral turrets. About 1,600 B-25Cs were built and 2,290 B-25Ds, out of a total of nearly 10,000. Uruguay received 11 aircraft, numbered 150 to 160, which left Los Angeles on May 23, 1950, and arrived at Military Base No. 1 on June 11. Four more were added between 1957 and 1958. When they were retired in 1963, of the 15 aircraft, seven were still flying: two had been lost in accidents and five had been decommissioned.