B-25 Nose Mod

[Jack Cook]

I've seen this mod on a number of 13th AF B-25Js. But this CBI bird gives the best view yet I've seen. What is this intake running down the belly from the nose????

[mustangdriver]

I think that it had something to do with exhaust from the guns.

[Steve Nelson]

I'm curious as well. The Hasegawa 1/72 kit comes with it..I thought it was some post-war mod on a museum bird they used as a reference.

SN

[Jack Cook]

I think that it had something to do with exhaust from the guns.

No, it's not exhaust. It's a ram air intake of some sort. Could be fresh air has it ends just in front of the crew hatch.

[Warhawk]

I think that it had something to do with exhaust from the guns.

No, it's not exhaust. It's a ram air intake of some sort. Could be fresh air has it ends just in front of the crew hatch.

I would say thats a very good guess. I should think the fumes would get pretty intense in hurry when all those .50's started rattling. Especially in the cockpit as they are going to want to waft up that way.

[henry]

could it be an air intake/exhaust to use the venturi effect to suck the gun fumes out?

[Paul Draper]

I believe it is a shell casing eductor. The spent shell casings from the nose guns dump into it and the air ducted through it dumps them over board.

[Jack Cook]

The spent shell casings from the nose guns dump into it and the air ducted through it dumps them over board.

Hope the cases from the 3 nose guns are caught in bags.
Beginning with the B-25J-20 which this is, in addition to a second fixed .50 in the nose there was a 50,000 btu cockpit heating system installed. My guess is the the intake has to do something with this new system. This has nothing to do with the guns

[Craig59]

I looked at N.L. Avery's, B-25 Mitchell, The Magnificent Medium and found pictures of the same modification but, no explanation as to it's purpose. Two photos show the mod on PBJ-1D's on pages 66 and 71. The other two are on 10th AF B-25J's on page 116.

I don't know that the idea of this being a casing ejector for the nose guns is farfetched. It would carry the casings back to a position where they were unlikely to hit the props - just a thought.

[Jack Cook]

This mod showed up on the J-20s and beyond and since the cockpit heater was added at this time it makes sense that this is what it is.
If you're talking about the 3 guns inside the nose compartment. the cases and links are caught in bags as they are ejected.

[Craig59]

This mod showed up on the J-20s and beyond and since the cockpit heater was added at this time it makes sense that this is what it is.

Not disagreeing per se Jack, as I don't know what it is but... if it was a mod associated with the cockpit heater installed on the J-20 block and beyond, why is it installed on this PBJ-1D?

[Jack Cook]

It could have been added at a mod center after a certain date.
I asked Carl Scholl. Ne's been trying to figure it out for years

[fotobass]

Anyone check with the NMUSAF research folks?

[Craig59]

The caption for this photo does indeed state this aircraft was modified with the rocket launchers, package guns, and search radar at the Consolidated-Vultee Modification Center at Elizabeth, New Jersey so, your statement is entirely plausible.

What I can't figure is why they would install a 50,000 btu cockpit heater in an aircraft they knew would be operated at low-level in the South Pacific?

Oh well. Those of us who've been there know that's why the term "military inteligence" can be an oxymoron!

[rwdfresno]

What seems strange to me about the air-scoop in general is why bring it all the way out to the nose. There are other fresh air intakes on the B-25 and none of them resemble that so I wonder what the need was to bring the intake all the way to the nose of the aircraft. I'm sure the air is much cleaner up at the nose but seems like overkill unless there is something inside that long tube.

Ryan

Last edited by rwdfresno on Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.