Return of Betty's dream

Air Classics, Sep 1999 by O'Leary, Michael

ONCE AGAIN, AERO TRADER HAS COMPLETED ANOTHER

INCREDIBLE B-25 MITCHELL RESTORATION -- RETURNING AN AIRCRAFT TO AUTHENTIC 1945 COMBAT CONDITION

Over the past few years, Aero Trader at Chino Airport has been busily engaged in creating a World War Two masterpiece-- a fully-restored B-25J Mitchell equipped with every bit of original military gear. I had been watching the aircraft going together during numerous visits to the airport and was always amazed at how Carl Scholl and Tony Ritzman could keep coming up with all the original bits and pieces to create an award-winning restoration. The two partners have a small airstrip in the California desert where they store literally tons of Mitchell parts. All these have been obtained over the years by purchasing inventories from defunct companies, finding vital parts just before they were to be scrapped, and by recovering abandoned B-25 airframes from all across the country.

Carl originally had a shop doing specialized off-road vehicle transmissions. While testing one of these vehicles, he happened upon a derelict B-25 at Ramona, California. He crawled through the aircraft and, not being (at that time) a pilot or heavy-duty aviation enthusiast, thought the aircraft would be pretty neat parked in his backyard. He found out that the FBO owned the abandoned aircraft and after $1000 changed hands, the bomber was his. A pilot friend found out about Carl's purchase and inspected the craft. He informed Carl that, although the plane looked bad, it could be made flyable.

About this time, Carl met Joe Davis who had purchased another derelict Mitchell. Carl realized that parts would be needed to get these planes airworthy. He heard about the eccentric Jack Hardwick in El Monte, California, and traveled to that location where he was astounded to find literally tons of B-- 25 parts and components. Hardwick wanted to make Carl the "King of B-- 25s" and Joe and Carl went in together to buy the massive inventory. About this time, Tony Ritzman, another friend that knew nothing about airplanes, bought into the project and the group embarked on what would become not only a career but a learning process on how the B-25 was made, how it functions, and how it flies.

As Carl continued his transmission shop, he hired Dick Wright to get the Ramona Mitchell airworthy. During this time, Joe and Cad came up with the name Aero Trader which stuck and would go on to create restoration history. In 1977, the aircraft was flown to Chino for additional work while Carl and Tony found and bought another Mitchell in need of care in Troutdale, Oregon.

By now, parts and airframe components were stored in numerous locations. Carl found a good chunk of desert land near Borrego Springs, purchased it, and begun the massive job of transferring all the Mitchell stuff to that location. A dirt airstrip was craved out of the desert and more airframes arrived -- either by truck or flown in - for care and maintenance. There was no turning back at this point and several more large parts collections were purchased and trucked to the desert. In 1986, Tony and Carl bought out Joe's share of the business.

The pair realized that the remote location was probably not the best spot for doing business and they leased a large hangar at Chino (soon followed by the acquisition of a second hangar) and since then Aero Trader has been busily working on Mitchells and a wide variety of other Warbirds. To date, Aero Trader has done major (including ground-up) restoration work on over a dozen Mitchells -- including N7687C, the 1995 Oshkosh Warbird Grand Champion that Aero Trader completed for the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, Texas.

"In September 1994, we received N5672V," recalled Carl Scholl. "It was basically a good aircraft but it was also a tired fire bomber. We were originally instructed to clean and repair the aircraft as necessary for it to be a safe, dependable aircraft. However, as time went by, the new owner decided the aircraft should be returned to absolutely stock World War Two condition. At this point, we were really getting deep into the aircraft. The plane had been belly landed while being operated by Bendix and there was still some skin damage from that event. Also, Bendix had installed a canopy atop the fuselage and there was some non-standard skin in that area which had to be replaced. We changed top skins along with rear and belly skins. The fire bombing tank had been removed from the bomb bay prior to the aircraft's delivery to Aero Trader and bomb bay doors had been reinstalled.

"The R-2600s were sent to JRS for complete overhaul. As with most tanker Mitchells, the top of the bomb bay had been cut down and that had to be rebuilt and restored. We found some of the original Bendix autopilot test equipment and wiring still in the airplane and all that was removed. The interior was thoroughly stripped and cleaned and we began making lots of trips to our desert facility to sort through the myriad of original parts that would be needed for the restoration. A top turret was obtained from Jim Ricketts and restored back to original and fully operational condition while the 14 .50-caliber replicas were built to a very high standard.