The Commemorative Air Force Icon Rises After Nearly Five-Years

The Commemorative Air Force’s B-25 Yellow Rose—assigned to the organization’s Central Texas Wing—has returned to operational-status after nearly five-years on the ground.

After a 30 June shakedown flight, the grand old bird winged its way to Austin-Bergstrom International to put in a showing at the Independence Day, Austin Warbird Expo.

In November 2017, the Yellow Rose’s crew discovered an issue with one of the airplane’s engines. Maintenance personnel would later determine the afflicted engine required removal and replacement before the airplane could again venture aloft.

The following years saw Central Texas Wing volunteers invest hundreds of hours removing the engine, preparing it for overhaul, then reinstalling the newly rebuilt powerplant.

Ground-runs of the new engine commenced in June 2022, and the airplane—in an instance of metaphorical Americanism—asserted her arrival on the Fourth of July. 

The B-25J-5-NC serial number 43-27868 now flying as Yellow Rose was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Corps on 26 April 1944. In May of 1944 she was assigned to the 334th Bombardment Group where she served as a pilot and crew trainer. The remainder of the war years saw the aircraft assigned to units in Connecticut and Texas.

In December of 1945, the B-25 was flown to South Plains Field, Texas, were she was placed into open storage. In July of 1949 she was removed from storage and assigned to the 3750th Technical Training Wing as a ground instructional airframe.

In September of 1956 the aircraft underwent a Hayes modification to a TB-25N and by May of 1957 was assigned to the 3640th Pilot Training Wing at Laredo AFB. By August of 1959, she was back in storage at Davis-Monthan in Arizona.

Released by the military on 11 December 1959, the aircraft was sold to Fogle Aircraft Company of Tucson Arizona. She was again sold in February 1960 to Dothan Aviation Corp. of Dothan Alabama. A civil registration of N9077Z was issued in March of 1960.

In January, 1962, just shy of her 18th birthday, the airplane was inauspiciously modified for crop-dusting, which remained her vocation until the autumn of 1975, when she was sold to John Stokes of San Marcos, Texas.

In 1977, the B-25–now 33-years-old—was sold to the trio of Charles Skipper, Charles Becker, and Jack Jones, whom, in 1979, sold her to the Confederate (now Commemorative) Air Force—the stewards of which changed her registration to its current N25YR.

FMI: www.commemorativeairforce.org/home