Got to ride in a B-25 Mitchell

[Duke]

Thanks to a friend of mine, I got a 30-minute ride in Panchito, a beautifully maintained B-25J Mitchell. For takeoff and landing I was in the radio operator / top turret gunner's seat, but for the rest of the ride I was bombardier.

Panchito:

 

[Duke]

During takeoff I was in jump seats behind the pilots and flight engineer position:

My seat would have been occupied by the top turret gunner / radio operator.

 

[Duke]

Once we were at 1500 ft, I could unbuckle and slide on my back through this little tunnel. It was about an inch narrower than my shoulders and maybe 24 inches high:

At which point I was rewarded with this view:

 

[Duke]

Ride up there for about 20-25 minutes before I had to go back and strap in for landing:

 

[opelgt1969]

Just how many times did you want to grab the handles and act like you were shooting planes down?

 

[EricTheActor]

Whoa! That is so cool! Completely wild it’s so well maintained after all of these years! That view up top is ridiculous. Imagine how scary it must have been for those guys in a battle. Cool experience!

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Just how many times did you want to grab the handles and act like you were shooting planes down?

"pew pew pew pew"

 

[Eggstor]

Damn, but that is cool. The closest thing I can say I've done is I once had a ride in the EAA's replica of The Spirit of St. Louis (in the few months they did offer rides in that), roughly where Charles Lindbergh sat for his historic trans-Atlantic flight. Since that was before cell phone pics, I don't have any pics of that. I still marvel how Lindbergh made that flight with a massive fuel tank in front of him extending to where the pilot of the unmodified plane would have sat (and where the pilot of my flight sat).