Form 25b: Fill & Download for Free

B-25B Number 40-2242.It was evaluated by Pacific Navy pilots, then sent to Moscow to be attached to 65th Special Squadron (pilots that evaluated and tested Allied planes).B-25B was no surprise to USSR. In fact, USSR received almost a 1000 of such planes via lend-lease.But this particular B-25 was of unorthodox modification — additional fuel tank, shortened wings, wooden rear gunner cockpit.Probably it was even used in combat together with 860 other Soviet B-25s, but I have no information on this.Anyway, technologically it was not so superior from Soviet bombers, so there was no need to reverse-engineer them.In fact, USSR turned down even B-17 and B-24 after studying their performance. B-29 was probably the only exception of plane that was worthy reverse-engineering.

Out of all the planes of WWII, I would most like to have a de Havilland Mosquito or a PBY Catalina. The Mosquito was a very clean design using ancient wood-working fuselage technology to out perform all of the modern wonders made from aluminum.The Mosquito was wonderfully adaptable, capable of serving as a fighter, bomber, night fighter and recon platform. Superficially, it looks like it might have been possible to use Mosquitos for the Doolittle raid. The wingspan was 13 feet less than that of the B-25B.: The listed nominal ranges are comparable with the B-25 having only a 50 mile advantage. However, IMHO, the B-25B was a FAT design. so there was a lot of non-essential junk that when jettisoned made it possible to extend the range. In contrast, the Mosquito was a lean and clean design, so the most that could be done to extend the range would be adding nacelles like those found on the the 1944 recon models.However there was a hitch in the concept. Rushing brand new technologies into demanding applications was by and large a recipe for failure in WWII. First deliveries of 20 Mosquitos only occurred in 1941 with just 30 others in March of 42, only six weeks before the Doolittle raid. The Doolittle raid was an immensely complex job. I have grave reservations about the work required to prepare the Mosquito for this specific mission. It was still really in the shakedown stage while Doolittle was training his flyers for the mission..The B-25B was more of a known quantity being a second iteration removing issues found in the first production model the B-25A.I would be most concerned in rushing very early production production Mosquitos into service for such a challenging mission. Remember the fiasco with Panthers at Kursk. Further, in view of the limited availability of planes, it appears that it would have been difficult to accommodate the extensive training required in very early 42 for the Doolittle mission which launched from the Hornet on April 18 of 1942. In short, I would suggest that this would have been pushing brand new technology too far in far too short a time. It sounds possible, but I see the time schedule as being far too compressed to have a reasonable probability of success. Note that all defensive armament had to be removed from the Mitchells so the Mosquito did not suffer in that regard.

I don't know, but I'm happy with how things worked out :)Also, I believe many people were (and still are) significantly undervaluing Facebook equity. It has the potential to be worth more than Google. It's already trading over $25B (vs the silly-low $6.5B that people were discussing at the time of the FriendFeed deal) - http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/04/facebook-secondmarket-25-billion/. I think re-doing the math on this deal in a couple of years should be very interesting.