I heartily and impartially recommend a copy of B-25 Mitchell in Civil Service to all those who have such queries. (See also http://www.aerovintage.com)
Beyond that, though, I can suggest that Tallmantz did a Circlevision 360 project for Walt Disney Co. between January and April 1972 that used N1042B with Frank Pine as the pilot. I think that this is when that photo was taken. The Circlevision camera assembly weighed several hundred pounds and involved eleven cameras filming simultaneously on a mount that lowered from the bomb bay of the bomber. Tallmantz did numerous such projects for Disney in the 1960s and early 1970s.
As for this airplane wearing combat paint for Catch-22, that’s correct. Both Tallmantz camera ships (N1042B and N1203) had a water based camouflage paint added for the filming, not so much because they were to appear in the flim (though they did) but they had to fit in on the airfield shots. Also, during the filming, if one of the airplanes strayed into the camera view they had to blend in. Frank Pine told me that they mounted (externally) turrets on both airplanes but buffeting from the turrets caused camera shake so they were removed. I viewed the film recently and could not pick out the distinctive camera noses on any of the airplanes in any of the views, so it must have worked out okay.
I would suggest that one of the most amazing pieces of aviation film ever to show up in a movie was the takeoff sequence in Catch-22. Seventeen B-25s all taking off at the same time. Since there were only 17 B-25s on scene (plus one non-flyer) in Mexico, you know both camera ships are in the background somewhere during the takeoff. Frank told me they did that takeoff numerous times on numerous days, at the same time every day so the lighting would match. It was a real hairy sequence to film, and was one of the few that was as dangerous for real as it appeared on film. The film crew set up behind the massed B-25s was blown several hundred feet downwind when 34 R-2600’s came up to takeoff power, at least for the first take (let’s see, that’s like 68,000 horsepower). Presumably, the learning curve precluded setting the camera up at the same spot for the subsequent takes. In 1980, Mr. Pine recalled that if any of the lead airplanes had lost an engine during any of the massed takeoffs, well, he thought the fire would still be burning eleven years later. I’m sure Mr. Stoney Stonich, who was a copilot on the film and the only veteran of the film I know of who cruises these forums, could add some recollections to these sequences also.
Tallmantz restored the paint on their two camera ships as soon as they were back in Orange County in mid 1969, but N1203 was replaced within a few years by N9451Z. They provided three B-25s and at least a P-40 for the filming of the only-shown-once Catch-22 TV show pilot, filmed at El Mirage in the desert above L.A. in the late fall of 1972.
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