Ruptured Duck Nose Art.

[John-Curtiss Paul]

I remembered a little while back someone asked about this nose art and if was actually painted on the airplane for the raid. I was able to ask David Thatcher about it this weekend and here is the deal....

There was a sixth crewman who was to be their radio operator on the raid but was left behind on the Hornet as they did not need the sixth man. While on the ship, this man used some chalk to draw a crude duck all bandaged up on their B-25. Another one of the crew saw it and made the comment that he drew a very nice looking "Ruptured Duck". That's where the name came from. He added "Ruptured Duck" to the nose art and the rest is History.

[Django]

on a related note, I stumbled across this. Good read...

http://www.njipms.org/Articles/doolittle-lawson.htm

[mustangdriver]

Cool stuff. I have been researching this aircraft for along time. There are no known photos as far as I know of the aircraft.

[RyanShort1]

Not so... Check out the Navy historical archives and look for the Doolittle Raid photos. Lawson's plane's in there. The only thing we're not sure of is what was on the left side of the airplane, as photos of the left side of the aircraft are not there.

Ryan

[Django]

Cool pics. Thanks for the tip.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/even ... dooltl.htm

[fotobass]

Not so... Check out the Navy historical archives and look for the Doolittle Raid photos. Lawson's plane's in there. The only thing we're not sure of is what was on the left side of the airplane, as photos of the left side of the aircraft are not there.

Ryan

Maybe I'm a goofball, but I only found a shot of the plane from the wings back.

[Russ Matthews]

I just stumbled across this article in the Spring 2007 issue of the Pacific Aviation Museum (Pearl Harbor) newsletter...

http://www.pacificaviationmuseum.org/PAM%20Newsltr001.pdf (scroll down to page 2)

...which details the plan to have WWII veteran and artist Hal Olson recreate the "Ruptured Duck" nose art on the side of the museum's B-25 (modified to resemble a Doolittle Raid B-model). My apologies if this info has already been posted elsewhere.

[mustangdriver]

That is awsome. I would love to see the B model that is unrestored, get painted up like the Duck. I have a piece of the original Ruptured Duck that was brought back from an expiedition to find some of the Doolittle B-25's.