B-26K Counter-Invader Restoration ("Special K")

[Pat Carry]

I was excited to see a photo of "B-26K" 43-22652 at the Travis AFB/Doolittle Aerospace Museum in CA, but then learned that it's an A-26C painted to represent a K model.

Other than Special K, there's a K at the NMUSAF, and one at Pima. Another was scrapped at Florence, SC years ago. Any other K-models still around??

Ken

64-17640 is at the South Dakota Air & Space Museum Ellsworth AFB, 64-17651 KAI Aerospace Museum in South Korea, 64-17653 Pima Air & Space Museum, 64-17666 Hurlburt, and 64-17676 NMUSAF

[Chris]

Here are a few pics of the Pima B26K. I found the beefed up lower spar interesting.

[hahnej]

I was look at the spar straps on Special K a couple weeks ago. Pretty neat, I thought they must really mess up the airflow over the wing.

We got to thinking about it and realized that the K models eschewed the speed of the original Invaders for more load carrying ability. Even with the big props and more Hp, they were slower than the originals; lower geared to carry more load, so to say.

A lot or work went into that K model rework. I was also amazed at how small the gunners' compartment would have been on the original Invaders. The Invader that were converted into Exec aircraft feel completely different, I always thought the space would have been much larger than it was.

[NImrodA26]

The wing on the K model was certainly no lightweight. When I went to Florence to retrieve some parts of 671 before it's final demise, there was a secton of the wing laying there cut from outboard of the nacelle to just beyond the last hard point. I'm guessing it was about 10-12ft. long. I wanted to turn it over to see if the landing light was still intact. Try as we might, my son and I couldn't budge the thing. I had no idea a section of wing would be that heavy. After looking at the small section of spar I got, I understood why. I have a piece of either the lower or upper spar, 15" long and it weighs 4 pounds.
Randy

[Zac Yates]

Hi there Steve, Pat, Bill and Team, what progress has come to pass this weekend?

Ever since I was a kid and all the other kids were into F-16s, I always had a soft spot for the K. In fact, this thread serves double inspiration as not only am I preparing my own (vintage civil) restoration, but also I have started on the Italeri 1/72 B-26K model kit. Seeing such a time-capsule aircraft is a real boon to a modeller like myself.

Keep up the great work, while it will be some time before I get to the US and have the chance to see her in the metal, this thread is a wonderful way to keep track.

[CrewDawg]

Here are some pics I took this weekend. The team is working on several areas, corrosion on the RH horizontal stab front spar, several areas of mower/ramp rash, the big area right now is repairs to the LH engine nacelle. The LH gear has collapsed twice in 679's lifetime and neither time were proper repairs made, so the team is doing it now.







Nose Gear Doors are ready once fabric is put over the lightning holes.


















The nose gear has been competely rebuilt, both props have been overhauled as well as both carbs. The LH nacelle repair will require pulling the LH engine to fix damage to the firewall. The flight controls have also been recovered as well. The big issues are the nacelles and all the sheetmetal damage and poor repairs. We are also in need of some good electricians/avionics volunteers to try to sort out the electrical system and install some decent avionics. If anyone is interested call the number in the picture above.

[Zac Yates]

Great to see the progress, thanks for the photos Bill. And thanks also for approving my Facebook group join

What colour is the rear compartment and the bomb bay? I'm doing a model of Special K and would like to know if possible. Different sources say/show interior green and black.

[Pogmusic]

Curious.... Were the bad repairs mentioned above done during its USAF career or post service?

[CrewDawg]

Zac - Thanks for joining the VFM FB page! Look back on pages 3 and 4 of this thread for some pictures of the cockpit and bomb bay, both are basically black.

Pogmusic - The sheetmetal repairs I think were a mixture of USAF, GA Forestry Service, Lynch Air Service and the whoever mowed the grass at any of the above locations. It appears that many of them were quick, just git 'er dun type repairs.

[Zac Yates]

Thanks Bill! Will the compartment aft of the bomb bay be fitted out at all? I was looking at opening the access hatch on my model but if it will be empty I won't bother. I've seen on a (Navy?) -26 seats have been installed for passengers, others have radio equipment.

[CrewDawg]

As I understand it, yes, the gunners compartment aft of the bomb bay will have the original military radios re-installed. The goal is to restore it back as it would have been had it served in Vietnam. (679 never went to VN, it was a stateside training ship). I know that when the crew went to Billings MT to bring it down to Texas that when they turned the batteries on all of the old military radios powered up!

[Zac Yates]

I remember reading that. Many thanks Bill, your answers are very much appreciated

[hawkeyepoole]

Our aircraft is a Vietnam era aircraft. In that time there were no permanent seats I know of installed in the aft radio compartment. It contained only radios. There is some possibility we'll have seats back there, but I don't know how likely that is at this point. You can see the aft compartment as it was when delivered to us here:
http://www.vimeo.com/channels/nimrods Look for the arrival video or the Smithsonian video.

The bomb bay is black, the cockpit is green and black depending on where you look and can also be seen in the above videos.

As for the poor repairs, my understanding is that 'most' of the damage was done after it was severed from the US Air Force, but I could be corrected on that.

Hawkeye
A-26A video documentarian and overall Nimrod and A-26A fan

[NImrodA26]

For what it's worth, none of the aircraft that went to NKP, (at least the first 10), had anything in the rear compartment, save for radios and the air compressor for the guns. At some point between November of 66 when I left, and the end of their operation, I know they experimented with putting a guy back there with a starlite scope (early version of todays night vision) and he pointed it out through the bomb bay looking for targets on the trail. If memory serves me, I believe the late Tom Wickstrom was involved with this. Don't know how effective it was.
During the Big Eagle period, the rear compartment was just used as access to the other stuff back there. We had at least one case where a plane made a bombing run, and the ordnance didn't release until after the pull out was made and the bomb bay doors were closed. Fortunately, the crew realized something was amiss and the nav looked back with a flashlight and saw the bomb laying on the doors. Rather than risk a catastrophie by trying to open the doors and get rid of it, they were told to bring it back, which they did. (someone said later it was the smoothest landing they had seen!) EOD took care of that one.
On a normal return from a mission, the aircraft would pull into the de-arm area at the end of the runway, shut down the engines, open the bomb bay doors, and the pilot and nav would have "hands out of the cockpit",while the guns, wing racks, bomb bay,etc. was "safed" before returning to the ramp.
After the hung ordnance deal, they were not permitted to open the bomb bay doors when they came to the de-arm area until an ordnance tech climbed into the rear compartment and inspected the bomb bay with a flash light to see that it was clear before they opened the doors. Other than those two things, I don't know of anything else the rear compartment was used for.
Randy

[A26 Special K]

December update from restoration team. We have dubbed the airplane Special Kay and applied a temporary vinyl sticker on the nose for now just to see how we like it. Very few of the Nimrod A-26's featured nose art and it appears that nacelle art was more prevalent if applied at all. We have pulled the left main gear for overhaul. The brakes will need overhaul but since they are similar to KC-135 brakes, Aviall may be able to do the job. They have been very helpful so far. Aviall built a power cable for us to run from the new hangar power supply to the airplane so we fired up the electrical system for the first time to give it the smoke test. It was good. Most of the lights worked except for the retractable landing lights. The motors would not extend. Found a problem with the oil cooler doors as well. Motors need to be lubed. The props and flight controls are back from the shops that worked them over for us. There is a lot of sheet metal work to do on the left nacelle now. Will do a blast job on the wheel well and get it ready for paint and the installation of the gear as soon as that is done. After this, we move over to the repeat the right side gear and well. The holidays slowed us down a little, but we expect to be back full steam after the New Year. Want to thank all of our dedicated volunteers for hanging tight with us on this tremendous job. We have a mission to return the airplane to flight and tell the story it has kept for so long. It will positively amaze you what the A-26 pilots and ground crews did from NKP. The guys on the ground know....both the friendly and unfriendlies. Happy New Year from the team! Jim R