EVERETT – World War II Mitchell bombers in flying condition are rare. Even more rare is having two flyable B-25 models based at the same airfield – Paine Field.
Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection of rare warplanes drew more than 300 people on Sept. 24 for an hour of formation
flights by both of the twin-engine Mitchell bombers at Paine Field, part of the FHC’s last flying day this year for its rare aircraft.
The Flying Heritage Collection’s B-25J, perhaps the world’s most authentically restored Mitchell bomber, made low passes over the runway alone and in formation with John Sessions’ Historic Flight Foundation B-25D “Grumpy.”
Sessions’ restoration and display hangar is across the airfield from the FHC hangar of restored vintage aircraft.
Although the fly days events are free for the crowd outside of the hangar, many of the people who gathered for the air show also toured Allen’s displays of rare, restored planes from each of the five major countries involved in World War II: the United States, England, Germany, Japan and Russia.
A special guest for the event was retired Lt. Col. Ed Saylor of Puyallup, 91, one of the few remaining survivors of the group known as Doolittle’s Raiders, the crew members of 16 B-25s that made a daring attack on Japan in April 1942.
The raid, with Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle in the lead plane, was a top-secret mission that shocked Japan, demolishing the country’s confidence that distant America could never launch an attack on the island nation. It also boosted American morale in the Pacific where armed forces were suffering repeated defeats by the Japanese after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Doolittle was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the crews’ success and promoted to general.
“Doolittle was kind of a genius,” recalls Saylor, who was the flight crew engineer on the 15th of the 16 bombers that launched the attack on Japan. “He figured everything out, including knowing that the B-25 was the only bomber that could take off from an aircraft carrier – the USS Hornet. We were given a lot of credit for changing the war in the Pacific. It was one of those things nobody in their right mind would try.”
After his crew bombed the shipyard at Kobe, his plane was forced to land in the China Sea when fuel ran out.
“There were sharks in the water and I guess it was cold, too. I don’t remember,” Saylor said. “I couldn’t swim, that was my main thought. With my lifejacket inflated, though, and a leaky lifeboat I made it to shore. We landed on an island, then swam to another one and finally reached shore in China where we walked for miles before we were found by Chinese troops who recognized the American flag we carried.”
Learn more
For more information about the Flying Heritage Collection and its rare aircraft, go to www.flyingheritage.com or look for Flying Heritage Collection on YouTube for videos. For information about Historic Flight Foundation’s collection, go to www.historicflight.org.
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