Marauder at MAPS

[Matt Gunsch]

I am tired of hearing people say things about the Marauder's so called bad reputation. For a plane with a bad reputation, it had the lowest combat loss ratio of all combat types. It was one of the first planes you had to fly by the numbers and proceedures and not by seat of the pants. Alot of the early crashes were cause by propeller issues and not airframe.

Comparing a B-26 to the other bombers of the day as to how to fly it is like comparing a Piper Cherokee to a Lancair, If you try to fly a Lancair like a Piper, you will end up as a smoking hole, but the Lancair is a great plane to fly, if you fly it as it was intented to be flown.

Kermit's plane is safe to fly, as he has proven, however, he has lots of planes to chose from, and because of who had done the restoration, I would want a pair of known engines on it.

[Aircraft Mech Paul]

I am tired of hearing people say things about the Marauder's so called bad reputation. For a plane with a bad reputation, it had the lowest combat loss ratio of all combat types. It was one of the first planes you had to fly by the numbers and proceedures and not by seat of the pants. Alot of the early crashes were cause by propeller issues and not airframe.

Comparing a B-26 to the other bombers of the day as to how to fly it is like comparing a Piper Cherokee to a Lancair, If you try to fly a Lancair like a Piper, you will end up as a smoking hole, but the Lancair is a great plane to fly, if you fly it as it was intented to be flown.

Kermit's plane is safe to fly, as he has proven, however, he has lots of planes to chose from, and because of who had done the restoration, I would want a pair of known engines on it.

Matt,

My post was not meant as inflammatory, nor was is a backhanded slap at the pilots who flew them with great success, I was simply referring to the aircraft's inception into the USAAC. Initially the plane suffered from numerous accidents and it almost didn't make it into the war until a very skilled pilot, whose name escapes me put on a demonstration of the abilities of the plane and help Martin keep the contract, thereby putting the plane into service and with highly skilled pilots at first who helped train others on the quirks of the aircraft it went on to have a rather brilliant career.

Now, what I intended to say in reply here based on what you said that Kermit Weeks could handle the aircraft rather well. BUT, he is one of the few known pilots that could jump into just about any cockpit and fly a plane given his rather vast experience. Steve Hinton is another that leaps to mind and I am sure that there are several others who could do just as well. But, and I know I keep running back to that, the number of skilled pilots that can handle the Marauder, at first look are an extremely small group I would imagine. Don't you agree ? I mean as you intimated, you cannot take a guy with a bazillion hours of time in say, a Duchess, or for that matter a King Air, and hand him the keys to the Marauder and say "Let's go flying".....I don't think that could ever happen. And even if you found, today, some qualified pilots to fly her, I would ask only one question...."How current are you in what similar type ? " Do you see what I am getting at ? I guess the closest aircraft in today's warbird world be either a B-25 or an A-26. Or if somehow you could get Kermit to make some money and get his ready for flight so he or one of his pilots could do check rides.

Anyway.....this whole discussion is moot to begin with. I am still of the belief of what I was told when they hauled her away from Beaver Falls, was that she was gonna be restored and she was gonna fly.

PM me if you would like to take this discussion further as I find fascinating and it would be a learning experience for perhaps the both of us, that is if you are interested.

Take Care,

Paul

[Steve Nelson]

a very skilled pilot, whose name escapes me put on a demonstration of the abilities of the plane and help Martin keep the contract

That would be a certain J. Doolittle. I understand he would put a Marauder through a series of single-engine aerobatics at B-26 training bases to dispel the aircraft's killer reputation.

The Marauder has always been on of my favorite warbirds. I was privileged to see Mr. Weeks fly his B-26 once, when he dropped in unexpectedly at Warbirds Over Kalamazoo back in '98. He was on his way from the Selfridge airshow to Oshkosh, and AZO was right on the way. I heard she was stuck at OSH for quite some time with engine problems, and Weeks eventually ferried her back to Florida where she's been hangared ever since.

SN

Some pics from the Kalamazoo visit...

[Ken]

... It was one of the first planes you had to fly by the numbers and proceedures and not by seat of the pants ... Alot of the early crashes were cause by propeller issues and not airframe ... Kermit's plane is safe to fly ... however ... I would want a pair of known engines on it.

My post was not meant as inflammatory ... I was simply referring to the aircraft's inception into the USAAC ... it went on to have a rather brilliant career.

Kermit Weeks could handle the aircraft rather well ... Steve Hinton is another that leaps to mind ... an extremely small group I would imagine ... you cannot take a guy with a bazillion hours of time ... hand him the keys to the Marauder and say "Let's go flying" ... And even if you found, today, some qualified pilots to fly her, I would ask only one question...."How current are you in what similar type ?" Paul

You guys are both right, but it is not so black and white, Paul. Matt makes a great point - that the plane was considered dangerous given the perspective of the pilots who first flew the B-26. That was then. The airplane went on to have much more sucess than failure, (meaning hundreds of new, low-time, 2Lts did just fine) yet, we mostly remember the failure. He also makes a great point that a pair of good engines would bring as much to the table as a talented pilot ... no need to test your emergency procedures knowledge on initial takeoff. (It's one thing to have talent, another to be put in a position of actually demonstrating it.)

That said, you are right also. There is no Marauder School and few folks walking the streets with that specific knowledge. Nobody, I suspect, even Weeks or Hinton "takes the keys" and goes (and I realize you weren't literal on that). Even Doolittle reveals in his biography the lengths he would go to "calculate the risk" despite his silent pleasure in being labeled somewhat of a cowboy.

But my point is that the number of multi-engine guys who could fly her safely is greater than you think ... it's just that their preparations would be thorough. I don't know the ideal mix of experience, but radial engines and typical WWII systems experience come to mind. Our hypothetical candidate might have time in the A-26, MU-2, Aerostar, OV-1, C-26, or biz jets, just to name a few. Multi-engine stick and rudder skills plus high wing loading experience are not necessarily specific to one aircraft type. Plus, many 2Lts did just fine in '44-'45 after the Stearman, T-6, and AT-11, etc.

Example: I have no Baron time. If a buddy asked me to go fly his Baron without a checkout, I would spend a great deal of time reading the manuals, sitting in the seat to learn the layout, talking to the mechanics about systems, talking to guys about how it flies and any bad habits to watch for. And I would read whatever writeups/articles I could find. Other than the absolute rarity of the B-26, I would approach the Marauder the same. Some folks might scoff at me for not just jumping in a Baron and going, but, well, it's my butt on the line, not theirs.

I suspect that a diligent pilot could also contact NASA, NMUSAF, and the Smithsonian. I bet there are volumes upon volumes of declassified test pilot reports that could assist a would-be Marauder pilot. Very few unknowns. After all that, it would be incumbent on me to fly it by the book. No airplane does well outside its envelope. I suspect that similar conversations are going on with the MAAM P-61.

Didn't mean to ramble on, but perhaps I did. This was obviously just one man's opinion, and does not necessarily reflect that of WIX or any other management. Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.

Good topic!

Ken

[Rocketeer]

Well said. It's rather unfortuanate that there aren't any airworthy later model Marauders (B-26B/C/F/or G models) since they not only are more representative of the majority of the ones that saw combat in the ETO but they also had more user friendly flying characteristics, although I do like the early models too.