Being a bit of a slut, I decided to write about my former lovers in no particular order. This story is about the North American Aviation B-25 Billy Mitchel. Oh, and fist-fucking. We were in our early 30s, the airplane was fifteen years older than that. It was written as an entry in a 1000 word short story contest.
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"Veni, vidi, vici," I came, I saw, I conquered. Pontus, forest fires, we do what we can. Now it was time to go home. In difference to our heavy fuel load, extra passengers and all of our gear being on board and a relatively short runway, George was easing the two Pratt & Whitney 2600s to takeoff power while holding the brakes at the extreme end of a displaced threshold. With 30 degrees of flaps, 2100 RPM and 25 inches he released the brakes and we thundered down the asphalt. At 120 mph rose into the air. We were flying in a genuine movie star, one of the 30 or so North American B-25 bombers who starred in the 1970 motion picture Catch 22.
Like most of the Billy Mitchells in Mike Nichols' film, our ship had been discharged from active service and become a gainfully employed civilian. Converted into a water bomber to fight wildfires, a one thousand gallon tank was installed in the original bombay with two smaller tanks fore and aft. When full, we held over six tons of water. We weren't quite at maximum takeoff. The water tanks were empty. Only the wing tanks were full, and a couple thousand pounds of military equipment the aircraft was built with had been stripped out - unneeded in its civilian role.
To get from our seats in the small cabin located where the waist gunner and radio operator once resided you pull yourself, feet first by an overhead handrail, along a polished stainless steel slide across the top of the bomb bay into the former navigators compartment - now mostly occupied by firefighting equipment. Choices abound, on the floor is a door with a ladder that you can exit the aircraft from when on the ground, you can step up into the cockpit or take a similar but shorter slide under the pilot to reach the former bombardier compartment. Yossarian's crew station.
I like to think that the late Joseph Heller would have appreciated what we do with "his space." The armor plating and bomb aiming equipment were removed by the Airforce, and the transit seat and other superfluous equipment by previous operators. So, after climbing over the water tank Kristin and I disrobed in the equipment room. Before proceeding to the nose, I stepped up and said "hi" to George and Eva who suddenly seemed very overdressed in their British style cargo shorts and short sleeve uniform shirts. George nodded his permission for Eva to join us.