Flight Of The PBJ-1

What's a PBJ-1 you ask?

It looks familiar, doesn't it?

The PBJ-1 is the World War 2 Navy/Marine Corps nomenclature for the B-25 Bomber. In World War 2 there were more B-25s produced than the Army Air Corps needed, so they sent some to the Navy, who then gave them to the Marines. The Marines used them for anti-ship and close air support missions.

The PBJ-1 instead of the clear nose had machine-guns installed for additional firepower for anti-ship and marine close air support missions.

Devil Dog is a B-25 that was restored and converted to the PBJ-1 variant by the Commemorative Air Force as there are no existing original PBJ-1s. The aircraft is named for the original Devil Dog that was lost in the Pacific with all its crew during a night operation.

Original or not, Devil Dog is still an absolutely stunning aircraft.

The B-25 Beauties

Normally you're lucky to be at an air show and see a single flying  B-25 Mitchell bomber.

Thunder Over Michigan had two this year.

Georgie's Gal

and

Briefing Time

Back then planes had some serious nose art, as well as some impressive mission markings.

Both bombers at the show were beautiful aircraft.

The B-25 was an excellent medium bomber, famous for being the first plane to take the war to Japan's home islands in the storied Doolittle raid. It also served extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia in addition to the Pacific.

Even today they make both a beautiful sight and lovely sound zipping across the sky: