WARBIRDS B-25 MITCHELL
62 FLYPAST 62 FLYPAST May 2015May 2015in Canada as a trainer and bomber,
it served for a decade before being
struck from the books in November
1961 and purchased by Hicks and
Lawrence Ltd of Ostrander, Ontario.
Given the Canadian civil
registration CF-NWU, it passed
through the hands of several owners
in a relatively short time before
being purchased in 1967 by L H
Vance and T M Cooper of Addison,
Texas, and returning to the US as
N534VT.
The B-25J quickly changed hands
again before being acquired by Isaac
Newton ‘Junior’ Burchinal of Paris,
Texas, in 1969 – becoming part of
his warbird flight programme and
displayed in his Flying Tiger Air
Museum. It was later sold off along
with other portions of his collection.Fighting Fire
In September 1975, Paper Doll
moved to the SST Aviation
Museum in Kissimmee, Florida,
where it remained until August
1982 when the museum closed
and the collections were sold or
scrapped. It then headed north
again to Canada, purchased by G
& M Aircraft of St Alberta – and,made airworthy again, moved to
the company’s facility to be adapted
for use as a fire-bomber, carrying
Canadian registration C-GUNO.
Mitchells had already been
removed from fire-fighting duties in
the US after serviceability issues and
a series of crashes, but C-GUNO
and her stablemates served safely
and effectively in Canada for many
years. Paper Doll operated as ‘Tanker
3’ and ‘Tanker 338’ in a distinctive
yellow paint scheme along with
two other Mitchells until retiring
in 1992 as the last operational B-25
fire-bomber in the world.
In October 1998, Paper Doll again
returned to the US, purchased
by Mitchell Mania, which was
owned by partners Lynn Hunt,
Steve Penning and Bill Manly. Its
new home became the Charles
M Schulz-Sonoma County
Airport in California, just north
of San Francisco. Their company,
Aerocrafters, put the aircraft through
a three-year restoration, and it
eventually emerged as Sunday Punch,
carrying its current civil registration
N325N.
The overhaul included the removal
of the fire-bomber’s retardant tanksand a return to stock Mitchell
condition. A major portion of the
transformation was conversion to a
solid eight-gun nose, as the type had
in World War Two’s Pacific Theatre.
The USAAF paint scheme depicted
on Sunday Punch was representative
of a B-25J of the 81st Bomb
Squadron (‘The Battering Rams’),
12th Bomb Group (‘The Earth
Quakers’), of the Tenth Air Force.
The name Sunday Punch was a
salute to workers at the K-25 Plant
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who
donated their Sunday overtime
pay to raise funds for the aircraft.
The bare metal fuselage included
a distinctive and colourful nose
featuring the name, ‘pin-up’ art and
a large, fang-baring face on the front
surrounding the gun installation.Restoration
After several years flying on the west
coast airshow circuit – including
an appearance at 2001’s Doolittle
Raiders Reunion in Fresno,
California, where the author
photographed it – the Mitchell
was bought for the Fagen Fighters
WWII Museum. Founders Ron and
Diane Fagen and their sons AaronBelow
An air-to-air view of
‘Paper Doll’ following its
refurbishment and repaint
in California.“The USAAF paint scheme depicted on Sunday Punch was
representative of a B-25J of the 81st Bomb Squadron (‘The
Battering Rams’), 12th Bomb Group (‘The Earth Quakers’), of the
Tenth Air Force”60-64_Warbird_fpSBB.indd 62 17/03/2015 15:07