North American Mitchell Mk II

From The Air Combat Wiki

Contents 1 Fighter Ace Screenshots 2 Fighter Ace Ratings 3 Fighter Ace Performance 4 Historical Statistics 5 Strengths 6 Weaknesses 7 History 8 Sources 9 See Also

Fighter Ace Screenshots

Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ
Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ	Fighter Ace museum screenshot by Doug@HQ

Fighter Ace Ratings

Durability: 6

Speed: 5

Maneuverability: 4

Firepower: 1

Climb Rate: 3

Ground Attack: 4

Fighter Ace Performance

Top Speeds						Climb Rates
	Sea Level	4921' 1500m	9843' 3000m	19685' 6000m	Best Speed	Best IAS	to 1000m	to 3000m	to 6000m
mph	250	265	269	281	284@ 15092'	137 mph	2:42	8:10	18:53
kph	403	426	433	452	457@ 4600m	220 kph

Historical Statistics

Service Date: February 1942

Primary Guns: 1x Browning M2 0.5" (12.7mm) machine gun with 300 rpg in nose

Defensive Guns: 1x Browning M2 0.5" (12.7mm) flex machine gun with 600 rpg in nose, 2x Browning M2 0.5" (12.7mm) machine guns with 400 rpg in dorsal turret

Ordnance: 16x 120 lb (54 kg) or 8x 250 lb (113 kg) or 6x 535 lb (242 kg) or 3x 910 lb (413 kg) bombs in internal bomb bay or 1x 1,550 lb (702 kg) Mk.XII torpedo slung under fuselage

Engine(s): 2x Wright Cyclone R-2600-13 radials rated for 1,724 hp at sea level

Int Fuel Capacity: 4,027 lbs (1,826 kg)

Ext Fuel Capacity: none

Maximum Speeds: 284 mph (457 kph) at 15,040 ft (4,572 m)

Ceiling: 21,256 ft (6,462 m)

Loaded Weight: 29,900 lbs (13,563 kg)

Wing Area: 610 sq ft (56.7 sq m)

Wing Loading: 49.0 lbs/sq ft (239.1 kg/sq m)

Strengths

Bomb Load: The 5,000 lb. maximum bomb load is one of the heavier medium bomber loads.

Durability: The Mitchell was known for its ability to absorb combat damage.

Weaknesses

Defensive Guns: With only a single turret and flexible gun position, the gunners would be hard pressed to deal with more than one attacker at a time.

History

Named after Billy Mitchell, the outspoken and brash Army officer who was court-martialled for advocating the use of air power, the B-25 began life as the NA-40, a twin-engine medium bomber design intended to meet the 1938 Army Specification Number 98-102. The initial design featured a large greenhouse cockpit area extending above the fuselage line, which combined with low powered engines to produce a disappointing top speed of just 265 mph.

New engines were introduced to produce a meager increase in speed, but after the prototype was destroyed in a crash, North American decided to redesign the plane, which now bore the designation NA-62. Significant changes were introduced, the most notable of which was the shifting of the wing mounting point from the shoulder to mid-fuselage and the reduction in height of the cockpit area into a more streamlined, stepped arrangement with the bombardierís position in the nose.

With the outbreak of war in Europe, the Army accepted the new design without any further prototyping and the B-25 was born. The Mitchell grabbed headlines in 1942 when Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle led a group of volunteers in B-25Bs on a bombing mission of the Japanese home islands from the deck of the USS Hornet. While the attack resulted in insignificant levels of damage, the blow to Japanese security was such that four first-line fighter units were held for home defense over the next several months, precisely when they were needed in the Solomon Islands campaign.

By this time the new "C" and "D" models were coming off the production lines (the two models were identical, the only difference being the location of manufacture - Inglewood or Kansas City). Improvements included the addition of an autopilot, an increase in bomb capacity, better defensive and offensive firepower, and the ability to carry a torpedo for anti-shipping operations. These models were to serve in such far-flung outposts as Egypt, Tunisia, and New Guinea.

Because the Bendix Electric Ventral Turrets, which used a periscope sighting apparatus, were so hard to use effectively many C/D models had them removed in the field to save weight and improve performance. Additionally, most B-25C/Ds were equipped with wing racks, which raised the maximum bomb capacity to 5,000 lbs. for short-range missions. Over 3900 C/D models were built.

Lacking a well-defended medium bomber for daytime use, the RAF acquired several different models of the B-25 for their own use. The first was a batch of 23 B-25Bs, christened the Mitchell I by the RAF. These were intended only for familiarization and never saw combat. Over 500 B-25C/D models were sent to the RAF as Mitchell IIs where they were used to outfit the 2nd Tactical Air Force for operations over occupied France and the Low Countries.

Sources

Green, William; Famous Bombers of the Second World War, Second Series; Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York; 1961.

McDowell, Ernest R.; B-25 Mitchell in Action; Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas, 1978.

Angelucci, Enzo and Matricardi, Paolo and Pinto, Pierrluigi; Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft; ERVIN s.r.l., Rome; 1988.

See Also

Fighter Ace Planes Inventory

North American Aviation, Inc.

Aircraft Manufacturers During World War II