Maid In The Shade; B-25 Mitchell bomber in Penticton

[Sonny Taylor]

Three of us drove to Penticton from Kelowna to see this old restored war bird and it was well worth our time.

This B-25 Mitchell medium bomber is beautifully restored. For 5 bucks you can get inside it, see the cockpit, .50 calibre machine gun stations and the bomb bay (barely loaded with two inert bombs in the rack). Of course you can also check the plane up close from the exterior.

At first one gets the impression that this is a stationary display, until you put your hands near the big radial engines and feel the remaining warmth from the previous flight. We only had to wait for 40 minutes to see it fly. This is the real deal... a serious world war 2 war machine that is still air-worthy.

The big treat for me came when she was started up. We were only about 100 feet away when the Wright R-2600 Cyclone 14 (also called Twin Cyclone) engines were fired up. They belched blue smoke which was quickly blown away by the props as they came up to speed. As the aircraft started to taxi for take-off, the engines regularly back-fired and you could hear the echoes from the surrounding buildings. These big loud 2,600 cubic inch (42 Litre) engines were not at all content to idle and were begging to be revved for takeoff. They were so loud anyway that the back firing seemed normal.

When this bird finally flew past us at low altitude just after take off, the sound was something straight out of a world war 2 movie, except that it was real... you didn't just hear it; you felt it.

If you want to pay 400 to 600 bucks you can take a flight inside it. We were more than content just to watch from the ground.

War isn't pretty, but WWII did result in many technological advances, and this more than 70 year old beast certainly demonstrated that. If you think a race car has an impressive engine, wait until you hear and see this old but still running war bird up close and personal.

Penticton Herald story:
http://www.pentictonherald.ca/news/arti ... b2370.html

If you're an aviation and/or history buff, go see it. It's worth your time!

[Jo]

It's going to be in Victoria in time for Jim's birthday, and oh man, I would love to pay for a ride for him, for his birthday. He did quite a bit of work on one of the Commemorative Air Force (which used to be called the Confederate Air Force).

It's so much money for a ride, though. Understandably so, but still.