Type: medium/light bomber
Powerplant: two 1268-hW (1700hp) Wright R-2600-92 radial piston engines
Maximum speed: 438 km/h (272 mph) at 3960 m (12992 ft)
Initial climb rate: 261 m (856 ft) per minute
Range: 2173 km (1350 miles)
Service ceiling: 7375 m (24,196 ft)
Weights: empty 8836 kg (19,480 lb); maximum take-off 15876 kg (35,000 lb)
Armament: 4000 lbs of bombs
Accomodation: two pilots and up to four specialists
Dimensions:
Span: 20.60 m (67 ft 7 in)
Length: 16.13 m (52 ft 11 in)
Height: 4.98 m (16 ft)
Wing Area: 56.67 m2 (610 sq ft)
With its suspended, "in flight" appearance in YORKTOWN's hangar bay, the B-25 Mitchell Bomber was a Pacific and European workhorse for Allied forces.
The heavily armed aircraft was effective on both high level and low level bombing missions but its best known for completion of a historic raid over Tokyo in 1942.
Sixteen B-25 Mitchell Bombers took off from the carrier USS HORNET, with the large, heavy bombers struggling to successfully take flight. Led by Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, his "raiders" reached into the heart of Japan for the first time, bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities. With a carrier landing out of the question the crews were forced to make crash landings in China and Russian territory. All but three crewmembers survived the landings. Of the eight Americans taken prisoner by Japanese forces, two were executed and one died in a prison camp.
While the damage done to mainland Japan was light, the impact of successfully striking the Japanese mainland provided a huge lift in morale for the Allies.
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The USS Yorktown participated in the recovery of NASA's Apollo 8 crew in 1968.
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