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.