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B-25 J Betty's Dream
The B-25 is one of the most striking aircraft ever built in the USA. The medium bomber, named in honor of Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, saw action in every combat theater during World War II and became one of the most versatile aircraft of the war with different models used for high-level bombing, low-level bombing, skip bombing enemy shipping, strafing, photoreconnaissance, submarine patrol, and even as a fighter.
The iconic bomber forged its place in history in the wake of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 Mitchell aircraft launched from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier to attack mainland Japan, known as the "Doolittle Raid".
Along with its counterparts, the Martin B-26 Marauder and the Douglas A-26 Invader, the B-25 performed up to and beyond its original design expectations. During the war, B-25s served in both the European and Pacific Theaters of Operations flying a wide variety of missions, including medium and low-altitude bombing overland and anti-ship operations at sea. Very heavily armed for both defensive and offensive purposes, the B-25 could be fitted with as many as 18 .50 caliber machine guns or a 75 mm cannon and up to 14 machine guns, thus turning the bomber into a very formidable gun platform for strafing missions against shipping and ground targets, including strong fortifications and armored units.
The final production version, the B-25J, had a larger internal bomb bay and no belly turret, but it had flexible manually operated single 0.50-inch guns in waist positions and four fixed forward-firing guns in external “package” mounts on the sides of the forward fuselage. The B-25J was built with a transparent nose for bombing or with a solid nose mounting eight machine guns for strafing.
Betty's Dream is a B-25J painted in honor of Capt. Charles E. "Pop" Rice, Jr., who became Operations Officer of the 499th Squadron and was assigned to Betty's Dream in June of 1945. The plane escorted two "Betty" bombers carrying the Japanese peace envoys to le Shima on Aug 19, 1945, and again on the return mission from the conference in Manila with General MacArthur's staff.
By the time these talks ended World War II, Betty's Dream had taken part in 22 missions and sunk two Japanese ships.
We believe that Betty's Dream is more than just a WWII aircraft. She is a flying museum, a time capsule that is at the top of all B-25 restorations worldwide.
B-25J "Betty's Dream" 499th Bomb Squadron 345th BG 1945 Nose Art Bat Outta Hell Le Shima Auxiliary Airfield