North Weald B25

Does anybody have any photos of the other “wrecks ” lying around Sandtoft ?? , and what happened to the Imperial Preservation Group – or whatever they were called ???

Thanks for your responses folks.By coincidence,I picked up this month’s issue of Aeroplane and there’s a reader’s letter about Bedsheet Bomber in the Crosswind section.Apparently,her log books and other paperwork have ‘gone missing’ over the years and this is causing confusion over who owns what.The aircraft continues to rot while the legal issues are sorted out.As an interesting side note,Bedsheet is actually the Mitchell which appears in ‘633 Squadron’,aswell as being the cameraship for many of the air-air sequences.Sad to see her deteriorating so far.
The Sandhoft Mitchell looks a sorry sight n’all.Would be nice to think that perhaps the two wrecks could be amalgamated into one good example,even if it’s only static.

Graeme- a few aircraft have met their end at North Weald so it’s sadly not all preservation there. The machine at Sandtoft sadly won’t fly again in the U.K – the cost of sourcing the missing parts and rebuilding her to fly would be more than you can purchase a good example for in the U.S.
I would dearly love to see her restored – I viewed her when
she was derelict at Coventry and what has happened to her since is incredibly sad beyond words.

that is so shamefull, how can that aircraft be rotting at north weald? its not exactly in the middle of a bloody forest is it? is it possible that it would eva fly again? if the TFC B-25D leaves the shores we will have no flying B-25s in the UK.

i found this pic a while back. this is a b-25 a sandroft, i read a while back that this was being restored to airworthy standard? anyone know anymore about this?

Graeme

The machine belongs to a well known UK operator – why she continues to rot to nothing is one of those great contradictions
of ‘preservation’.

That would be the beastie then.
We dont get too many warbirds flying over here. Apart from the Museum of Flight airshows, I think that was the last one!

The Battle of Britain camera ship N6578D was only here briefly, going back to america after filming, now owned by an American owner and called Chapter XI.

Aces High had another camera B25 for Memphis Belle (N1042B) which returned to America in 95 and is up for sale again.

Now that you mention it, I think youre right. Didnt the Bof B one go to the States about 8 years ago? I almost crashed my car trying to look at it as it flew over here on its way over.

Preservation at it’s best 😡

This would be Moviemaker II, the camera ship used in the War lover and 633 Squadron, after being left in the UK following filming it was aquired by Historic Aircraft Preservation Society at Biggin Hill and later in 1967 went to the Southend Air Museum. So as it could be moved the spar was cut. After the demise of Southend Air Museum it was bought by Aces High and moved to Duxford and then on to North Weald. She was repainted and generally tidied up in the late 80’s before being entered into an auction in 89 with a sale to a well know UK collector being rumoured. It has sat at North Weald ever since with at one point the story being that it was too rotten to jack up to dismantle. It really is in a sorry state these days and I would suspect will spend it’s last days at North Weald.

Isn’t that the one that was used in the filming of Battle of Britain and ended up derelict because of some legal issues?
What a waste!