C-45 B.O.B. Indiana Wing
Description:
Base:
Sheridan Airport, Sheridan, IN
Website:
| C-45 Specs | |
|---|---|
| Role | Trainer / Utility |
| Manufacturer | Beech Aircraft |
| Introduced | 1937 |
| Produced | 1937–1970 |
| Power | 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-1 "Wasp Junior" radial engines, 450 hp |
| Length | 34 ft 2 in |
| Height | 9 ft 8 in |
| Wingspan | 47 ft 8 in |
| Range | 1,200 mi |
The Indiana Wing’s Beechcraft, affectionately known as BOB, short for “Big Oily Beast,” spent much of its military career as a classroom in the sky, first training World War II navigators and later serving as a photo-reconnaissance trainer.
Built by Beech Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, the U.S. Army Air Forces accepted the aircraft on April 21, 1943, as AT-7 Navigator serial number 42-56774. That same month, it was assigned to the 2536th AAF Base Unit, a Navigator School at San Marcos Army Air Field, Texas. In December 1944, it was transferred to the 2500th AAF Base Unit at Randolph Field, Texas, then to the 4196th AAF Base Unit at Victorville, California, where it was placed in storage.
The AT-7 transformed Beechcraft’s versatile Model 18 into a flying navigation classroom. Inside, students practiced the skills required to guide wartime aircraft across vast distances. Training included plotting courses, calculating time, speed, and distance, checking magnetic and gyro compasses, measuring wind drift, and practicing celestial navigation through the aircraft’s astrodome.
In February 1946, the aircraft was transferred to the U.S. Navy at NAS Alameda, California, becoming SNB-2 BuNo 67124. Its mission evolved again in 1954, when Beech remanufactured it as an SNB-5P photo-reconnaissance trainer. It subsequently served at aviation training facilities at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and NAS Pensacola, Florida, before being redesignated RC-45J in 1962.
After leaving Navy service, the aircraft served as a maintenance trainer and eventually returned to the air with the Commemorative Air Force. Assigned to the Indiana Wing in 2014, BOB today preserves two closely connected chapters of aerial reconnaissance history: determining precisely where an aircraft was and learning how to record what was below.
During and after World War II, more than 4,500 Beech 18s served with the U.S. military in a wide range of roles, including light transport, bombardier and navigator training, gunnery training, photo reconnaissance, and even as “mother ships” for target drones. Military variants included the U.S. Army Air Forces C-45 Expeditor, AT-7 Navigator, and AT-11 Kansan, as well as the U.S. Navy SNB series. During World War II, Beech 18 variants played a particularly important training role, helping prepare thousands of bombardiers and navigators for combat service.
