Mitchell Madness

“HOWARD’S B-25C MITCHELL

One of the rarest surviving North American B-25 Mitchell variants is heading towards completion at Aero Trader/Cal-Aero. This particular aircraft started out life as B-25C USAAF 41-13251 and towards the end of its military service it was redesignated as RB-25C to denote its obsolete/non-combat status. Flown to Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, the aircraft escaped the mass scrapping at the field and was sold surplus as N75635. Going through several owners, in 1953 it became the property of Howard Hughes with the registration N3968C. At the time, Hughes owned several ex-military bombers that he had converted to executive configuration. With the help of Richard Palmer and Glenn Odekirk, the interior of the Mitchell was reconfigured while the fuselage was modified with an airstair door and panorama windows. The modification for the windows was relatively extensive and required internal fuselage strengthening. Hughes used the Mitchell through the mid-1950s but by 1960 it was parked in the open on the western end of Hughes’ Culver City airport along with a BT-13 and an A-20 Havoc. After Hughes’ death, the Mitchell went to the Antelope Valley Aero Museum at Fox Field in Lancaster, California. Basically, a failure from the start this museum underwent a couple name changes before shutting down for good in the early 2000s. The plane was obtained by San Simeon Air and moved to Aero Trader where an extensive rebuild/restoration program began to return the plane to its exact Hughes executive configuration and paint. More details can be found in the September issue of AIR CLASSICS and copies may be obtained by calling 818-700-6868.”