November 2009 - Brussels Air Museum Foundation

enthusiastically welcomed
back (with
the addition
of a flesh-coloured bathing suit).
I wonder if Reg Day could shed some light on the identity of the ‘Hot Gen’ artist.
Norman Prowse: can you
add to the stories or provide clearer wartime nose art photos
ATLANTIC FERRY
- REVERSED
David Poissant
The famed B-25
Mitchell restored in
the
likeness of ‘Grumpy’, the longest-serving
RAF
Mitchell (125 Operations), has left her long-
at
time home in Duxford to take
up residence
the ‘Historic Flight Foundation’ Museum at
Paine Field in Seattle, Washington.
Built in North American Aviation’s Kansas
City plant, B-25D-30 to the USAAF advanced flying
Mitchelll 43331/N888972
was delivered
school in La Junta,
Colorado 27 October 1943.
After a short service there, it joined the RCAF
as KL161 and served first in North Bay,
RAF Museum Photoo
Ontario
then at Central Flying School in
Trenton, Ontario. It was then
used as a target
tug in Cold Lake, Alberta and RCAF Uplands in Ottawa before going into storage in 1960. In
1962 it was struck off charge and sold by the Canadian Crown Assets Disposal Corp to John
Goldney of Vancouver; subsequent owners were North
Star Aviation of Fairbanks, Alaskaa and
Noel Merrill Wein of
Anchorage, Alaska.
The Fighter Collection of Duxford purchased it in 1987 and flew it to Aero Traders in Chino,
California for rebuild/restoration, after which the new ‘ Grumpy’ was ferried to
Duxford via St.
John’s, Newfoundland. Ferry pilots were John Crocker,
Tony Ritzman (Aero Trader co-owner),
and Stephen Grey of
The Fighter
Collection.
For seventeen years, ‘Grumpy’ thrilled crowds at
European
air shows before being
put into storage at
North Weald. The Historic Flight Foundation
purchased ‘Grumpy’
in May of
2008 and she was
restored to airworthy
condition by Aircraft
Restoration
Company of Duxford,
England.
Getting ‘Grumpy’ to Seattle involved a five-day
ferry flight with stops in Iceland; Goose Bay,
Labrador; Edmonton, Alberta
& Abbottsford,
British Columbia. For the seven-hour
flight
between Duxford and Iceland the crew donned
Grumpy Landing in Iceland
26