B-25J Went Down On Alaska River Beach In 1969

The crowdfunding effort to raise money for the salvage of a B-25J Mitchell airplane which went down on a firefighting mission in 1969 has surpassed its $20,000 initial target, giving the entrepreneurs hoping to restore the airplane a boost towards their goal.

The airplane had flown for the USAAF from 1944-1959, and then entered civilian service as a fire suppression aircraft. It went down on a sandbar along the Tanana River near Fairbanks Alaska during a fire suppression mission in 1969. After salvaging what they could from the airplane, it was abandoned on the sandbar. Scavengers have removed pieces from the airplane, but entrepreneurs Patrick Mihalek and Todd Trainor said that the fuselage remains largely intact, and it is possible to make the airplane flyable again.

Mihalek and Trainor established a presence on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and set a goal of $20,000 for the initial effort. That goal was surpassed Saturday.

On the effort's Facebook page, the two say they have located a B-25 vertical stabilizer at a museum that can be acquired for $1,500. They are also working on an effort to acquire an R-2600 engine core and related items. They have established a "stretch goal" on Kickstarter of $4,000 to assist in those efforts.

(Sandbar Mitchell image provided by Patrick Mihalek and Todd Trainor) 

FMI: www.facebook.com/Sandbarmitchell