Doolittle Raiders Reunion - 70th Anniversary, 20 B-25 flyover

[Logan Hartke]

I don't see that this section gets updated very often, so I thought I'd add some from my recent trip.



This past week I was at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio for the 70th Anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Four of the surviving five crew members from the raid were there and were honored by a flyover of 20 B-25 Mitchells, the largest such gathering since World War Two.

On Wednesday, April 18th, I was fortunate enough to fly on a a B-25. It was the 70th anniversary of the raid and the 20th anniversary of the restoration flight of "Miss Mitchell", the plane I flew in. I was joined on the flight by a pilot from WWII who had logged 68 combat missions in B-25 Mitchells nearly 70 years before. The aircraft was combat-ready, one of only 2-3 Mitchells on earth with fully functional turrets in both positions.

If you're interested, I've uploaded some of the photos from the trip to a few Photobucket albums, including a lot more from the USAF Museum itself. I'll also post just a few of my favorites below, too. Enjoy!

Doolittle Raiders Reunion - Day 1
Doolittle Raiders Reunion - Day 2
Doolittle Raiders Reunion - Day 3





























































Cheers,

Logan

[Vacajun]

Logan, Great job! Thanks a million.

Been a very frustrating couple of years for airshows on the East coast. The Air Force has cancelled the annual show at Langley AFB the last two years and just announced this week that their will be no demos of USAF aircraft at airshows this year other than the F-22. Meanwhile, the Oceana air show has been rained out the past two years. Bummer.

[Logan Hartke]

Thanks, Vacajun! I'm on the east coast, myself. This trip was a 15 hour excursion each way, but it was well worth it! I had the NAS Jax airshow last year near my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, and it was quite nice if unseasonably cold and overcast. The Doolittle 70th weather was, as you can see, absolutely fantastic. It really couldn't have been better.

Cheers,

Logan

[adlabs6]

Those are excellent photos Logan, thanks for posting them. Looks like a great event and a beautiful day.

And what a treat to get to fly in the B-25!

[Supah]

Amazing experience and very nicely photographed Logan! To think these machines once roamed the skies in much much larger numbers. 50 of those big radials turning, that must have been some sound!

[Supah]

by the way



what the?

[Vacajun]

VZ-9 Avro Car--located at the Army Transportation Museum, Ft. Eustis, Virginia. About 10 minutes from my front door!
See
avrocar

[Logan Hartke]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you liked them and glad I posted them here!

Amazing experience and very nicely photographed Logan! To think these machines once roamed the skies in much much larger numbers. 50 of those big radials turning, that must have been some sound!

Yeah, it was amazing. At one point, the prop wash from all of the aircraft started blowing me backward.

As for the Avro Car, that particular one is located at the R&D hangar of the USAF Museum, where these pictures were taken.

Cheers,

Logan