‘Destination Tokyo’: A Doolittle Raider B-25’s Emotional Restoration

When Ron Kaplan was a boy, his fifth-grade teacher admonished him for drawing pictures of Eddie Rickenbacker’s SPAD in his math workbook instead of doing his lessons.

Fortunately, this did not diminish Kaplan’s interest in aviation or the graphic arts. For decades he has owned Warbird Aviation Art and been turning out images tied to World War II—especially those that honor the B-25 Mitchell and Doolittle Raiders.

Kaplan, who is also the founder and executive director of the Ohio Air & Space Hall of Fame (OASHF) and Learning Center, just finished a commissioned work in time for Veterans Day—painting the Doolittle Raider crest on the nose of a freshly restored B-25 belonging to Hugo Mathis of Switzerland. Mathis is the owner and one of the pilots of the Classic Formation Team, which features a 1943 DC-3 and three Beech 18s, circa 1952.

The aircraft is a North American B-25D Mitchell, serial number 43-3318, formerly known as Grumpy when it was previously making the airshow scene. The aircraft was restored at The Warbird Shop in Madras, Oregon, then flown to Santa Maria, California, for repainting.

It emerged as a Doolittle Raider, sporting the trademarked crest and the name Destination Tokyo on the pilot’s side—applied by Kaplan. He spent the better part of a week 7 feet in the air on a ladder carefully painting the design on an aircraft that is part of his family heritage.  Kaplan’s father was a B-25 instructor pilot during WWII and kept flying after the war.

“We flew out of Ohio State [University]’s Don Scott Field [KOSU],” Kaplan said of his father, who had been the fencing coach at OSU and later, as a professor, was also able to rent the school’s aviation department aircraft.

• READ MORE: Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, 81 Years Later
• READ MORE: Last American World War II Fighter Ace Dies at 103

As a boy Kaplan would ride his bicycle to the airport to watch airplanes.

“That’s where I first saw Bob Hoover’s P-51, though I wouldn’t meet him until decades later,” Kaplan said. “[Former] Governor [Jim] Rhodes kept ‘Buckeye One,’ the state of Ohio’s C-53, there. It now flies as Beach City Baby.”

Growing up, the younger Kaplan said he read a lot of aviation history books and followed the space program’s development, built model rockets and airplanes, and drew lots of pictures. He attended Ohio University, majoring in graphic design and communications, and never really pursued a pilot certificate despite the school having a robust aviation program.

He said he was more interested in getting established in the T-shirt business, which he did, and then eventually transitioning to full-time aviation art and writing, which led to him being recruited onto the staff of the National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) in 1998. He spent 19 years at the NAHF, making connections in the aviation world, especially in the warbird community, then founded the OASHF while simultaneously creating a business around aviation artwork, such as nose art painted on metal or stoneware coasters with images of WWII aircraft.

He also met a lot of warbird owners—including Larry Kelly, who owns the B-25 Panchito and serves as the business manager for the Doolittle Raider Association (DRA), an organization that protects the Doolittle Raider name.

“He’s been a great supporter and front man of sorts for the Raiders for many years and takes guarding their legacy very seriously,” Kaplan said.

Kaplan has had a personal and business connection to the Raiders dating back to their 1981 reunion in Columbus, Ohio.

“I was introduced to General [Jimmy] Doolittle and the attending Raiders when I presented each of them with commemorative T-shirts of my design,” he said.

In 1992 he painted an A-2 flight jacket with the Raiders’ crest and an illustration of Doolittle’s B-25 and gifted it to them at their 50th reunion in Columbia, South Carolina.

“After taking some promotional photos at Oshkosh that July, the Raiders then put that jacket on display in the Doolittle Military Library in Dallas, Texas,” Kaplan said.

By the time of the Raiders’ 1999 reunion, Kaplan was several years into having created limited editions of aircraft aluminum artwork, signed by noted pilots and crew, on which he then painted their nose art or insignia.

“Naturally I had numerous Raiders sign such pieces on which I would later paint the crest,” he said. “These pieces were sometimes displayed at later reunions before being sent to the collectors who purchased them. So I was well versed in authentically replicating the crest, having painted each piece by hand.”

According to Kaplan, the crest is federally trademarked to the DRA.

When Mathis contacted the association requesting to have the Raider crest hand-painted onto his restoration, Kelly and his board discussed the matter and ultimately provided a letter of authorization for limited use, in this case only to be painted on the B-25, and suggested Kaplan for the job.

“Jim Martinelli of the Warbird Shop in Madras, Oregon, which did the restoration, reached out to see if I’d accept the job and be able to do it at Santa Maria Airport [KSMX],” Kaplan said. 

In addition, Mathis wanted the name Destination Tokyo painted on the left side of the aircraft’s nose.

Kaplan traveled to California to get the job done. There were starts and stops, as ArtCraft Paint and KSMX had other pieces that needed to be done, and only one hangar is reserved as a giant paint booth.

“There was also a day [when] the B-25 had to be moved from that hangar to another one, still another unexpected delay,” said Kaplan. “And through all of this I was dealing with the slow-drying nature of the enamel paint. The Warbird Shop team, doing final assembly tasks, faced similar timing concerns, so as we neared the end of the week, we came in at 6:30 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. and worked into the evening.”

About the Design

The Raider crest painted on Destination Tokyo goes back to the creation of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders Association in 1963.

“There is much symbolism, the most obvious being the inclusion of the four insignia of the bomb squadrons in the 17th Bomb Group from which the 80 Raiders volunteered for the mission—the 34th, 37th, and 95th Bomb Squadrons and the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron,” said Kaplan. “Those are in a quartered sphere at the center. Some elements of the crest are a nod to the group’s WWI heritage, such as the French ‘Toujour Au Danger,’ meaning ‘Ever Into Danger,’ and seven Maltese crosses, honoring the group’s predecessor, the 95th Aero Squadron. So you could say the Raiders’ own heraldry also represents a salute to their heroes.”

The project was an emotional experience for Kaplan, as the B-25 is so tied to his father, who died in 2016. He couldn’t help but think about him as he worked. Then something incredible happened at the end of the job.

“I have a thing I call ‘Godwinks,’ when something happens that you just know was divinely inspired,” he said. “I’ve witnessed many. Literally the minute I finished the crest by putting my initials on it, the Warbird Shop team tugged the B-25 out of the hangar into the brilliant sunlight. I mean, my paint is still wet. It’s a beautiful example of a 1942 B-25.

“Of course, I am right there to take photos, banging away as I hear a loud roar coming from the sky. What is the first aircraft to fly right over our heads, as if to properly christen this beautiful new restoration? A B-25! I was too [shocked] to lift my camera. But it’s etched in my memory. You cannot convince me that it was not my dad and the Raiders that made that flyover happen at that very moment.”

Destination Tokyo will be staying in the United States for a time before it heads to Switzerland, the home of its owner. Look for it at EAA AirVenture and other airshows.

Photos of the aircraft and Kaplan’s other projects can be found here.