Historical Overview
From 1996 to 1999 she only flew 60 hours, mostly to air shows as "Girls Rule". By the early 2000s she was renamed "Top Secret", and under the operation of 99th Street Inc. of San Antonio, TX, she hardly flew at all; rather, she languished in disrepair in a falling down hangar. In late 2002/early 2003, Jim Terry purchased and picked up the plane - it took his group two weeks to get it out and running and get most of the hydraulic leaks stopped. From there the plane was moved to Tulsa, OK where students at the Tulsa Tech Center and volunteers got the plane airworthy.
Currently, the Pacific Prowler is being maintained and managed by a group of individuals (as Greatest Generation Aircraft Non-Profit) at Meacham Field in Fort Worth, TX dedicated to bringing visitors a historic opportunity to step back in time and gain respect for this legendary aircraft and for the men and women who gave so much to protect our freedoms.
This aircraft has a rich history, a qualified crew, impeccable maintenance, and is in amazing condition.
The North American B-25, Pacific Prowler, is one of just a handful of B-25s that still fly today. The B-25 Mitchell Bomber was made famous on the daring Doolittle Raid on Tokyo which took place four months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The B-25 Bomber went on to become the most versatile medium bomber of World War II, seeing combat in every theater of operation.
The Pacific Prowler is a "J" Model North American B-25 Mitchell. The original Prowler was deployed to the Pacific Theater and flew over 120 missions before returning home after the war.
The Pacific Prowler II was built in 1944 at North American's Kansas City plant and was accepted for service in the AAF in early 1945. She came out of storage in 1946, and beginning in 1949, served as VIP transport in the new US Air Force until 1958 when she experienced a gear-up landing and was declared as salvage.
She was bought in 1962 by Tallmantz Aviation of Long Beach, CA and began the next chapter of her life as a photo ship for Hollywood. Pacific Prowler has participated in over 80 Hollywood feature films including:
Around The World in 80 Days
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Disney's 360 Degree 'Circle Vision' movies
In the 1960s, this plane flew to all four corners of the world to film the Seven Wonders Of The World at low level for Disney Studios for use in their 360 degree videos as seen at the Disney Parks. In the mid-1980s she was sold to Universal Aviation and was operated by Aces High in the UK (as 'Dolly') - being employed specifically to film The Memphis Belle in 1989. She retired from movie-work in the mid-1990s and went into a serious restoration period. In 1996, while owned by World Jet of Florida, her camera nose was removed and the traditional military nose replaced.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Sundheimer.
Our aircraft's basic timeline and technical info**:
1944 - Built by North AMerican at their plant in Kansas City - originally designated as a B-25J, serial #44-30823A
1949-1958 Used as VIP transport by the USAF and re-designated as a VB-25J; in 1956 went through an extensive update by Hayes of Huntsville,
AL (making it essentially a zero-hour aircraft) and re-designated again to VB-25N (Hayes pilot-trainer); experienced a gear-up landing in 1958 - considered salvage by the Air Force at this point1958-1962 - Bought as salvage by Wenatchee Air Service of WA - registered as N1042B
1962-1985 - Bought and used by Tallmantz Aviation for movie-work as a cameraship
mid-1980s - Bought by Universal Aviation Corp. and operated by Aces High of the UK as "Dolly"
mid-1990s - Bought by World Jet of Florida; restored to military configuration including the camera nose being removed and replaced with the
more traditional nose bubble in 1996; operated as "Girls Rule"early 2000s - Operated by 99th Street Inc. of San Antonio, TX as "Top Secret"
2002 - Purchased by Jim Terry (now registered under Pacific Prowler LLC) and maintained and managed by the non-profit, educational
group, the Greatest Generation Aircraft non-profit.**While we have found some inconsistencies during our research into our aircraft's history, the information above is our best interpretaion of the facts about our aircraft. The bulk of our research came from these websites:
Greatest Generation Aircraft and Pacific Prowler are not affiliated with the Eagle Flying Museum
