World War II bomber will be restored to original condition by
Morgan Hill man and a team of volunteers
Sara Suddes – staff writer
GILROY
A B-25 Mitchell Bomber straight out of World War II sits on the runway at South County Airport in San Martin. Clearly visible from U.S. 101, the bomber draws plenty of curious passersby, eager to take a closer look at the massive aircraft.
The Morgan Hill owner of the aircraft, Ken McBride, 45, plans to restore the bomber to its original WWII condition and fly it at airshows. He recently purchased the plane from a private owner and flew it to the West Coast from Lancaster, Ohio, where it had been in storage for years. Fortunately, most of the instruments on the control panel still work.
“It’s a little different!” McBride said of his hobby. “I’ve been told I have a defective chromosome, but I love it.”
The going rate for a flight from Ohio to California in a B-25: “Too much,” McBride said.
He declined to divulge how much he paid for the aircraft.
The bomber requires 110 gallons of fuel per hour to stay up, McBride said. He also owns seven other WWII planes, fighters and bombers. They are in various states of repair. McBride has shown the two that are in flying condition at West Coast airshows.
“I’ve been building models since I was a little kid,” McBride said from the cockpit of the B-25, “and have had my pilot’s license for 10 ten years now.”
McBride owns California Classic Chevy Parts in San Martin and devotes his spare time to his hobby. He estimates it will require 10,000 man hours to restore the bomber and is looking for mechanically inclined volunteers who are interested in donating their time. There is plenty of work to go around from stripping the paint to structurally repairing the corroded wings. Luckily, the aircraft was never used as a fire bomber, as many B-25s were, which “beats it up pretty bad,” he said. Fire bombing is a method of combatting wildfires using aircraft to drop water or fire retardant formulas from the air.
The B-25 Mitchell is a 20,000-pound aircraft powered by two Wright Cyclone engines and became the most versatile aircraft of WWII. It is most famous for being the aircraft used in Jimmy Doolittle’s historic raid over Tokyo in 1942. During this mission, 16 B-25 bombers were loaded onto an aircraft carrier, the USS Hornet, and shipped out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The bombers were successfully launched from the carrier to complete the raid on Tokyo. The Doolittle Raid was significant in that it proved the vulnerability of Japan.
“This is great,” said Rick Adams, an employee at the nearby Wings of History museum who came out to see the bomber. “We love aviation and restoring antique airplanes.”
The inside of the bomber smells old and the insulation spills from the inner walls. During the war, five crew members maneuvered in the tiny cavern of the bomber. The majority of space was reserved for the bombs.
“Crew members had to be pretty small,” McBride said, pointing to the narrow opening leading to the bomb bay. The crew included a pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, radio operator, and gunner.
The bomber brings a lot of publicity to the airport and nearby Magnum Aviation, an aviation services company that rents the bomber’s parking space to McBride and operates the airport. The downfall to the public’s interest is the safety issue that arises when unauthorized pedestrians cross the runway.
“We are concerned with people walking in areas where planes go,” said John Benson, manager of Magnum Aviation. “People shouldn’t go past the grass area or be walking where there’s airplane traffic. I think it’s great that people are so interested in the plane but we’re concerned for their safety.”
The best time for the public to view the bomber is Nov. 17 at Magnum Aviation’s anniversary BBQ, Benson said. Volunteers interested in helping McBride restore the bomber can contact him at ke*@***************ts.com.
