North American B-25C Mitchell
|
Crew |
4 to 6 | ||
|
Dimensions |
67’7”
x 52’11” x
15’9” 20.60m by 16.13m by 4.82m |
||
|
Wing area |
610 square feet 56.7 square meters |
||
|
Weight |
20,300-34,000 lbs 9208-15,422 kg |
||
|
Maximum speed |
284 mph at 15,000
feet 457 km/h at 4570 m |
||
|
Cruising speed |
233 mph 375 km/h |
||
|
Landing speed |
93 mph 150 km/h |
||
|
Rate of climb |
15 feet per second 4.6 m/s |
||
|
Service ceiling |
21,200 feet 6462 m |
||
| 2 1700hp (1268 kW) Wright R-2600-9 Doubule Cyclone 14-cylinder 2-row radial engines driving three bladed propellers. | |||
|
Armament |
2 0.50 machine
guns in nose 2 0.50 machine guns in dorsal turret 2 0.50 machine guns in ventral turret |
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|
External stores |
3000 lbs (1361 kg) of bombs | ||
|
Range |
1300 miles (2100 km) with
3000 lbs (1361 kg) bombs 2900 miles (4700 km) ferry. |
||
|
Fuel |
670-1090 gallons 2540-4130 liters |
||
|
Production |
A total of 9816 of all type at North American Aviation Incorporated plants in Inglewood,CA and Kansas City, MO: | ||
| 1 | NA-40 prototype | ||
| 24 | B-25 | ||
| 40 | B-25A | ||
| 120 | B-25B | ||
| 1619 | B-25C | ||
| 2290 | B-25D | ||
| 405 | B-25G | ||
| 1000 | B-25H | ||
| 4318 | B-25J | ||
|
Variants |
The B-25 lacked armor and self-sealing tanks. The B-25 and the B-25A
were armed
only with single .30 machine guns in the waist windows, tail, and
nose. The B-25B and earlier models were equipped
with 1350 hp R-2600-9
engines. The B-25G had a solid nose fitted with a 75mm M4 gun with 21 rounds and four .50 machine guns. It could carry 8 5" rockets under its wings. The B-25H had an improved 75mm gun and
added four more nose .50s and
two .50s
in waist bulges. It could carry a torpedo in place of the
bomb
load. It also upgraded the engines to two 1850hp
R-2600-29s.
The
B-25J had a glazed nose, could carry 4000lbs of bombs, and had a total
of 13
.50 machine guns with a total of 5000 rounds. The B-25J also came in a solid-nosed version with five additional 0.50 machine guns. The F-10 was a photoreconnaissance version. |
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This was the plane flown by the Doolittle raiders. It was extensively field-modified in the Southwest Pacific with forward-firing machine guns to make it an effective low-level strafer. These field modifications were adopted by the factory as the B-25G and later models. Thus modified, the B-25 was a potent ship killer, able to put an amazing amount of metal on the target to suppress antiaircraft fire and then skip-bomb to sink the target. Against land targets, such as airfields, it made very good use of parafrag bombs.
The 75mm gun on the G and H (and field-modified early models) was was a potent weapon, but it was heavy and had a slow rate of fire and a frightful recoil. Its use also required a steady attack dive that left the aircraft vulnerable to enemy defenses. It was understandably not popular with its crews. The gun was omitted in both versions of the definitive J model, perhaps because the introduction of 5" rocket armament made it superfluous.
There were three squadrons of B-25s at Pendleton Field when war broke out. Subsequently, over 60% of B-25s were allocated to the Pacific.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia (c) 2007 by Kent G. Budge. Index
