B-25 "Old Grey Mare"

[Pat Carry]

Who owns this Mitchell now and does it still take to the skies on a regular basis?

[Ken]

Here's the original Mare.

http://www.ww2color.com/search/webapps/ ... _key=03694

[Ryan Keough]

It's owned by Hans Lauridsen and is now sitting in a shade hangar over at Buckeye Airport on the far West side of Phoenix. It had been sitting dormant for several years at Falcon Field in Mesa, AZ lacking control surfaces before being put back together and ferried to Lauridsen's facility at Buckeye. It was the last time it flew and it doesn't look like it will fly much before getting a lot more TLC. See: http://lauridsenaviationmuseum.com/index.htm

Thanks,
Ryan

[Chris]

Wow, Hans' site hasn't been updated in a looooooooooong while.

[corsair166b]

Wha, you mean this baby?



Taken on a photo mission over Breckenridge back in the mid 90's on the same flight that Phil Makanna shot his cover photo of her for his 2nd 'Ghosts' book...

Hope she finds her way back into the air again soon...
Mark

[bilwor]

Is the museum open to the public?
bill word

[Chris]

I'll check with Sam Korth for an update on Hans' stuff

[Ken]

According to the internet, B-25J 44-86797, N3438G which had been Wiley Sanders' "Ol Grey Mare" and sold to Hans Lauridsen around 2003, is now in natural metal finish with the name "Sweet Dreams", the Air Apaches logo on the tail, and is part of Lost Coast Warbirds.

Google doesn't bring up much, but there are a few pix on the Lost Coast website. Does anyone have any additional story to share?

Ken

[JohnTerrell]

Hi Ken,

Yeah, it's owned now by by Justin Zabel (Lost Coast Warbirds). After having sat static for so many years, it took them nearly a year to get the aircraft to ferry-condition, and after which they flew it to Marana, Arizona in early 2023. There, Bill Muszala's company, ATW Aviation, carried out the remainder of the work. It's registered now as N25JZ. As I recall, they were hoping to have had it done in-time for Reno last year (same owner also owns the P-51D 'Bardahl Special' and a few other warbirds), but its first public appearance was at the Central Coast AirFest last Ocotber.

[Ken]

Great pic. The paint scheme is interesting - as if it had been an OD airplane stripped in theatre and the Air Apaches logo retained. Are there any actual examples of this from WWII in that unit?

Glad to see her flying. Back in the 90's the Sanders' collection had several "two's", P-51, T-28, AD-4, T-34, and, of course, the B-25s.

Ken

[OD/NG]

Great pic. The paint scheme is interesting - as if it had been an OD airplane stripped in theatre and the Air Apaches logo retained. Are there any actual examples of this from WWII in that unit?

Glad to see her flying. Back in the 90's the Sanders' collection had several "two's", P-51, T-28, AD-4, T-34, and, of course, the B-25s.

Ken

Yes, several. A few examples:







If I recall correctly (somebody verify), I think the NMF was more of a late war thing - 1945, similar in vein to B-17's not being painted because the Allies had Air Superiority by then and it didn't matter to paint them OD. They could deliver the bombers to the front quicker without the time delay of painting them.

The definitive book on the Air Apaches is "Warpath Across the Pacific", where they have documentation of that.

I'm sure that Mark Allen will come along (hopefully) and provide high resolution versions of these photos and more and put my small contributions to shame, lol.

[JohnTerrell]

Just for some background on the olive drab/grey-to-NMF change over, that occurred within US aircraft production at the start of 1944. So most B-25Js were bare metal when they entered service.

The Air Apaches (345th BG) are known to have painted many of their bare metal B-25Js OD/grey in the field, and that was even captured on film (video I should track down again).

For the style of tail markings on Lost Coast Warbirds' B-25, they were likely inspired by an example such as 'Lady Lil' (as well as the yellow cowl rings):

[Ken]

I should have been more specific; I was only asking about the apparent OD background for the tail logo as seen in Lady Lil, pretty unique, thank you for the additional photos.

Ken

[OD/NG]

I should have been more specific; I was only asking about the apparent OD background for the tail logo as seen in Lady Lil, pretty unique, thank you for the additional photos.

Ken

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood the question. Looks like John answered it though. So, while we're on the topic, this begs the question - why would they spend extra time and effort to remove the OD to reveal NMF? It seems like it would take extra resources to devote to that which has seemingly little payoff or benefit? Anyone know the reason behind this practice?