A packet marked 'Bovingdon Mitchells 23 May 1978'

N94552 and N9115Z staged through Dublin on 9 March 1979 – it says on my plane spotter’s notes!

Fantastic phots old chap! I was living in Stow-on-the-Wold at the time and cycled to LR just after the filming stopped. There was a lovely silver access panel lying by the taxiway. I could not carry it on my bike! And my Dad wouldn’t help me in the car 🙁 Oh well.

Anyway, a few years later, I acquired a 500 lb bomb prop from one of the prop guys. It had been dropped from a B25 during filming twice! Apparently they used sand as ballast, when the a/c took off the sand went to the back of the bomb and it fell tail first!! So they used concrete in the nose instead

Seems relevant under this thread…Sandtoft B-25 Gorgeous Georgeanne is for sale for a reported £10k (Source 100% reliable). In sections outside Doncaster. See Flypast this month for me photos…

Unfortunately we saw her last year and she was saveable, now she has serious exfoliating spar corrosion. On checking with Aerotrader replacement spars cost in the region of $125,000 plus taxes and shipping, they have to be specially made from aluminium extrusions.

She has no engines, no cowlings and not much of an interior.

We seriously thought about trying to take her on, but she is probably beyond us. Needs £200k+++ and 20 years. 🙁

Nice to see her in her glory days though.:)

Hanover Street….Harrison Ford film….wot ever happened to him ? 😀

Changed his name to Mr Callista Flockhart I believe.

Moggy

A further couple of slides located.

Given to me by an unknown photographer.

‘Gorgeous George-Anne’ and yours truly in the RH seat of the infamous ‘Brenda’s Boy’ with the even more infamous ‘Jeff’ Hawke in the LH seat- both at Bovingdon.

Mark

I think you’re probably right James. I thought about that, but was not sure.

I seem to recall a photo in one of Jeremy Flack’s books showing Lyndsey (sp?) Walton’s Bf108 G-ATBG surrounded by “flack” bursts – always wondered how they’d done that!

Indeed MEANT to be safe James. Remember that up until it explodes it is still a solid package that will easily go through a windscreen 😮

With the bursts as close as they look on Albert Ross’ photos I’m surprised that the pilots volunteered to fly through it! My option would’ve been to have the flak bursts in an otherwise empty bit of sky, and fly along a line that passes through the flak from the camera’s standpoint, but is actually behind the flak field. The downside is that you can only film from one or two angles, which means more runs for different camera angles, but it is safer in the end! Leaves less dents in wings too! 😉

What do you expect – Jeff Hawke was directing on the ground….”Quite safe, he said” 😮 I was in one of the B-25s on another run and they were bursting all around us!

I think they may have been mortars – a tubes in the ground that fire a charge into the air which then explodes. MEANT to be safe, as there’s no shell or metal jacket, and a small ‘dirty’ charge for the smoke – but I’d rather not fly through them!

I think you’re probably right James. I thought about that, but was not sure.

Back to Bovi…

A few more.

Mark

Indeed MEANT to be safe James. Remember that up until it explodes it is still a solid package that will easily go through a windscreen 😮

With the bursts as close as they look on Albert Ross’ photos I’m surprised that the pilots volunteered to fly through it! My option would’ve been to have the flak bursts in an otherwise empty bit of sky, and fly along a line that passes through the flak from the camera’s standpoint, but is actually behind the flak field. The downside is that you can only film from one or two angles, which means more runs for different camera angles, but it is safer in the end! Leaves less dents in wings too! 😉

I think they may have been mortars – a tubes in the ground that fire a charge into the air which then explodes. MEANT to be safe, as there’s no shell or metal jacket, and a small ‘dirty’ charge for the smoke – but I’d rather not fly through them!

A little off-topic, but does anyone know what the special effects boys did to get their “flak”?

Sorry, no idea but bloody frightening flying through balls of exploding smoke!
Seemed very realistic at the time!

I believe the B25 at North Weald was the one once in the Historic Aircraft Museum at Southend. Can anybody confirm this is the same one ?

Many thanks

Quite correct Ian!

B-25s in Europe

As far as I know, after ‘Grumpy’ moves to the US the following B-25s will still be around:

1. The Duke of Brabant Airforce example, which will move to Gilze Rijen in the near future to be operated together with the Royal Netherlands Airforce Historical Flight:

Obviously she’s now in Netherlands East-Indies colours as ‘Sarinah’:

http://www.dbaf.org/

2. The Red Bulls aircraft, operated from Salzburg, Austria:

http://www.flyingbulls.com

3. The French B-25J F-AZID has been for sale for quite some time now but is apparently still stored at Dijon. For more info have a look here: http://b25forsale.free.fr

As for the static ones (or the ones Jeff Hawke abandoned 😉 ) I’ll leave it to someone else to sort through those.

Ex-firebomber Mitchell

Here’s one at least that served as a fire bomber:
North American B-25J Mitchell 44-28938 Old Glory, c/n 108-33263, built at North American’s Fairfax Plant in Kansas City, registered N7946C and owned by the Commemorative Air Force, owned by John Ward and based at Stockton, California.
History: Assigned to 12th AF/57th BW/310th BG, based in Mediterranean. Returned to United States in July 1945, converted to TB-25N.
BOC: Aug. 1944., SOC: 1958. Sold for $2,018.50 to P.J. Murray, Oxnard, CA, Jan. 18, 1958, registered as N7946C. Wenatchee Air Service Inc, Wenatchee, WA, 1963. Converted into firebomber with 1,200 gallon tank in bomb bay. Red Dodge Aviation Inc, Anchorage, AK, 1969-1972. Flew as tanker #4. John L. Dewey, El Segundo, CA, June 1975. Ressell deFrancesco & John Cahill, Cardiff, CA, July 1975. Yolanda Rodriguez, Tucson, AZ, Apr. 1977-1978. Restored to military configuration. Max Power Inc, Carlsbad, CA, Oct. 1978. James D. Ricketts/Aero Nostalgia Inc, Stockton, CA, 1982-1993. Flew as 428938/9C/Dream Lover, damaged in forced landing accident, near Reno, NV, 1987. Trucked to Stockton, 1987 and stored dismantled. World Jet Inc, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Dec. 1993. Russ & Don Newman/Old Glory Inc, Tulsa OK, 1993-2002. Delivered by road, underwent 18,000 hour restoration. First flight Sept 16, 1995, flown as “Old Glory”.

JBS
I think the last one was destroyed in a fire in France in May 1970…
OAW

OAW,

Thanks for the correction 🙂

Great Stuff Albert, thanks.

What did they use for the fake flak? It looks convincing.

I’ve always wondered how so many Mitchells have survived since the war compared with most bombers – were they used for firebombing or something? Or did they simply have a long air force career and made it into the warbird collectors era in big numbers? It’s great to see all five flying together there.

A little off-topic, but does anyone know what the special effects boys did to get their “flak”?

Hanover Street filming

Those are great photos, thanks Mark. They really do look like genuine wartime shots.

I’ve seen the film about a decade ago but truly cannot recall a thing about it. I’d love to see your coloured shots too please Albert if you’ll allow us to see them. Thanks.

Okay, here we go! Here is “Amazing Andrea” (N7681C ‘151790’) and “Gorgeous George-Ann” (NL9494Z) taking off for filming. I took the cockpit shot inside her during filming with American pilot Eric Lorentzen on the left. Then we have a landing shot of “Brenda’s Boys” (N86427). This machine gave the film crew the most trouble as it contstantly had engine problems and was coughing and spluttering all the time!
The last shot is interesting. which I took during the filming, showing the formation being shot at by flak. Now although this is mock flak, the third aircraft from the left has actually been hit and lurching to port with a real dent in it’s wing!

JBS
I think the last one was destroyed in a fire in France in May 1990…
OAW

Edited because I can’t type dates correctly!! 1970 indeed – berk! – :rolleyes: