It took 25 percent fewer man-hours to build a B-25 than to produce a B-26. It was substantially cheaper to manufacture than either of its rivals-the more innovative Martin B-26 Marauder and the Douglas A-20 Havoc. But it found its true calling as a low-level attack bomber and strafer.Įconomy had a lot to do with the B-25’s success. The B-25 was intended to be a medium bomber, delivering substantial bombloads more economically, more rapidly and more accurately, from moderate altitudes, than the high-altitude heavyweight B-17s and B-24s. North American Aviation’s original prototype, the NA-40 featured a dihedral wing design that was discarded early in the B-25’s development. 50-caliber machine guns than four infantry regiments. A single 12-airplane squadron of B-25s carried more.

By the end of the war, the B-25 was the most heavily armed aircraft in the U.S.

The single biggest difference as the Mitchell aged and improved was its ordnance-guns that grew and proliferated in a manner that totally changed the airplane’s mission. From the A model to the J, the airframe remained unstretched, the flying and control surfaces were constant and the engines were unchanged other than detail mods-different exhaust systems, carburetors and the like. The B-25 finished World War II virtually unchanged from the form in which it had been born. The Fortress began flying raids for the Royal Air Force in July 1941, and a dozen unarmed B-17s were in the air during the Pearl Harbor attack five months later. How the B-25 Became the Ultimate Strafer of World War II CloseĪmong American aircraft, only the Boeing B-17 had a longer combat career.

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