North American B25J Mitchell

Plane: North American B25J Mitchell

Weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 21,100lb/ 33,500lb /

Wing Area: 609.8sq ft

Wing Loading: 34.6 lb/sq ft / 54.9 lb/sq ft /

Engine: 2x 1,700hp Wright Cyclone R-2600-13 Radial

Flaps: 3 settings

Visibility:

• Front: Fair
• Sides: Fair
• Rear: Nonexistant

Control Feel:

• Slow: Sluggish
• Near Sustained: Bad
• Fast: Minimal, with bad trim requirements

Stall Speed 1k (No Flaps/Full Flaps) 100mph / 90mph

Guns:

Ordnance:
0: 6x500lb bombs
1: 3x1,000lb bombs
2: 8xRockets + 6x500lb bombs
3: 8xRockets + 12x100lb bombs

Fuel Time/Percent: 44 seconds/percent

Power/weight (Empty/Loaded/Max): 6.2 lb/hp / / 9.9 lb/hp /

Corner Velocity: 280mph

Durability: Good

WEP time: No WEP

Accleleration:

Climb:
1k-5k: 90s
5k-10k: 141s
10k-15k: 161s

Zoom Climb:
1k 400mph:
1k 300mph: +2,600ft

Dive:

Max Speed

Turn Performance

Corner Speed and Radii (1,000ft):

Speed: 280mph
Radius: 570ft
Sustained Turn Speed: 145mph
Sustained Turn Radius: 831ft
Full Flaps Speed: 110mph
Full Flaps Radius: 671ft

Roll Rate:
150mph: 13.4s
200mph: 11.3s
250mph: 10.1s
300mph: 12.1s
350mph: 21.0s
400mph:

Minimum Full-Flaps Full-Power Split-S altitude:
150mph: 1,400ft
200mph: 1,400ft
250mph: 1,700ft
300mph:

Hoof's Tips and Opinions:

The B25J is the precision bomber variant of the B25H. As such is sports the same defensive armament as the B25J, with flexible gun mount in the nose, and four pilot-fired .50cal machine guns. Ordnance loadout is a bit heavier, able to carry more 1,000lb bombs than the H variant. The nose is the glass-nose found on the C variant of the plane, and the plane is fitted with a standard Norden bombsight (the same found on the B17).

The B25 is a bomber through and through. The only fighter it can outturn is the P39, and even then, the P39 will get several passes with it's 37mm and machine gun before the B25 could use it's turning performance. It climbs well, and is rather fast for a bomber. In fact, it is faster or as fast as many of the early war planes, such as the F4F wildcat, and gives the A6M2 a run for it's money.

This variant allows one to fly the B25 in a high-altitude bombing setup. In this it does quite well, although I suspect the B17 will be preferred, simply because it's more heavily defended, has double the bomb load, and is quite a bit tougher than the B25, which in my experience tends to fall apart rather easily, even moreso than the Ju88. This is, of course, just my experience, the B25 may in fact not be that fragile at all.

The advantages over the B17 are faster climb rate, better maneuverability, and faster level speed. These are reasons enough to fly it if one wants to get in there and do a Norden bombdrop.

Compared to the B25H, the B25J is more maneuverable, climbs better, and should be a little less durable. This is due to the absence of the extra nose armament (three more .50cal machine guns and a 75mm cannon for the H variant, plus an armored hard nose), resulting in less weight for a given bomb load and fuel load.

As far as arena combat, the B25J is far more useful than the B25H. The Nordon makes this possible. Where as the B25H really has to get inside ack range to have a chance of doing damage to a base or task force in any reasonable time, the B25J can climb above any ack and bomb accurately. Naturally the poor maneuverability of the B25J and it's need to fly in a relative straight line to drop bombs or fire guns makes it a particularly easy target for Otto-driven Ack, which is the major reason the B25J is a better base buster. The B17 is more suited to the arena for this tast, due to a tougher otto screen, better durability, and greater bomb load, but the B25 can suit quite well, especially for short runs where carrying a huge bomb load isn't quite as Back To Main Pagenecessary.