| In 1949, North American Aviation thought that might be a real market for converted Mitchell executive transports, and undertook a program to modify standard B-25s into transports. They obtained a surplus B-25J (44-30975) and modified it as a prototype executive transport. The forward fuselage was redesigned to make it wider and nearly four feet longer, making room for four more seats in the cockpit section. The bomb bay section was reworked to carry a bunk and cargo storage. Four additional seats were added in the waist section. It was assigned the civilian registration of N5126N, and flew for the first time in February of 1950. Unfortunately, during a cross-country tour, the aircraft crashed on March 1, 1950, killing all seven people aboard. This crash, and the onset of the Korean War a couple of months later, led to North American Aviation abandoning its efforts to make a commercial transport out of its B-25.
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