2007 Thunder Over Michigan
7-8 July 2007
The Yankee Air Museum, based at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan, once again organized an air show featuring warbirds and the US Navy Blue Angels aerobatic team and aerobatics by Sean D. Tucker who, despite flying the only non-military aircraft in the show, certainly entertained the crowd.
Celebrating the B-25
Certainly one of the best known aircraft of the Second World War, North American's rugged B-25 Mitchell medium bomber was flown by the Allied nations, including the Soviet Union, wherever combat operations were undertaken. Post-war use by the air arms of a many more nations included pilot and navigator training, VIP transport and instruction in the use of airborne fire control systems. Of the nearly 10,000 aircraft built, there are some 34 airworthy B-25s today.
The Yankee Air Museum's 2007 Thunder Over Michigan air show managed to bring together 16 aircraft from all over the US including 15 in the air for a series of flypasts. The sound of many Wright R-2600 radial engines in formation is one not soon forgotten and 'made the day' for one gentleman who, having trained as a pilot on B-25s late in the war, had not heard it since 1945.
The immaculate Betty's Dream, a B-25J operated by C & P Aviation Services at
Blaine, Minnesota , taxies in on arrival at Willow Run.
Representative of the care lavished on the B-25s at the show, and throughout the
warbird community in general, N5672V won a Preservation Award at AirVenture -
the annual gathering of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and air show
at Oshkosh, Wisconsin - in July 2000 following a lengthy restoration.
N898BW taxies out for a late Friday afternoon multi-Mitchell formation
flight around the Detroit area. Axis Nightmare is a part of the
Tri-State Warbird Museum collection based at Clermont County Airport in Batavia,
Ohio. Like many of the B-25s currently airworthy, she started out as a
B-25J and was later converted to a TB-25N navigator training platform while in
post-war USAF service..
The 15-ship B-25 segment of the show was led by the Yankee Air Museum's own rare
B-25D. N3774 Yankee Warrior, which saw combat in North Africa with the
USAAF and extensive service with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Canada later and after
the Second World War as a Mitchell Mk.II, is seen here during one of the many flypasts.
N9079Z is caught during a flyby with the bomb bay doors open. Built as a
B-25J, this aircraft finished its military service as a TB-25N before joining
the US civil register as an air tanker. When not on the air show circuit,
Rag Wings & Radials Aircraft Leasing's Panchito calls Wilmington, Delaware
home.
From Kissimmee, Florida, N62163 Killer B can claim service with the RCAF, as
the Mitchell Mk.III (B-25J), and the Venezuelan Air Force in the post-war years.
The rather unique combination of US star and British fin flash was carried for
identification purposes by aircraft of both nations operating in the
Mediterranean area during Operation TORCH, the joint Anglo-American invasion of
North Africa, in November 1942.