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

[A26 Special K]

......Here is another of Don's shots of the OnMark paint job, but notice this one is fitted with the glass nose for cameras.

The airplane pictured above is 643, one of the original 8 deployed to NKP. 643 was destroyed in a landing accident July 23, 66 off the end of the runway.

Randy, just curious as to how the AF handled the wreckage after something like this happened? Was it just buried or what? Thanks, JR

[NImrodA26]

.....Randy, just curious as to how the AF handled the wreckage after something like this happened? Was it just buried or what?

Good question. Actually, I have no clue what happened to it. I never heard of anyone cleaning up the wreckage, other than EOD going out to get all the ordnance that was on board. I neve saw anything come back to the base. If it did, I didn't see it.
Joe Maynard would probably know more about that than me.

[rdennard]

just curious as to how the AF handled the wreckage after something like this happened? Was it just buried or what? Thanks, JR

While I was at Hurlburt Field in '68 we had a C-123 and an A-1 "crash land". Both of these were caused by obvious trainee pilot error and damaged beyond economical repair. So, they were drug off the runway and stripped for any usable stuff. Then, their hulks were drug out to the boonies and left there hidden by the Florida jungle. I only discovered their hiding place by riding my dirt bike motorcycle from town and ended up on base... no gates or fences to stop me. I discovered both A/C were just sitting in the dirt of a clearing. That was in Nov. '68.

I returned a couple of years ago to try to see if the A/C were still sitting in the jungle. Some of the area that used to be jungle is now the "East Side" of the expanded base with a parking ramp and maintenance buildings for the CV-22 Osprey, a new commissary and a host of other stuff for the 1st SOW. There's still lots of jungle too, and I think the area where the crashed A/C were stashed may still be undisturbed. However, the jungle is even thicker. When I tried to find the old A/C I had to try to walk into the jungle since it was very overgrown. But I was attacked by mosquitoes and every insect Florida has to offer. With the massive defense of the jungle offered up by the squadrons of defenders I had to abandon my quest to find the A/C. So... those A/C may or may not still be there.

While at NKP we had a couple of airplanes (A-26 and A-1) crash at the base. The A-26, #673, cartwheeled into the "end of runway" area in March '69 while still loaded with bombs. The A-26 still had a full load of fuel too and immediately burst into flames. It was on a declared emergency so the fire department was right there to put the fire out. To my amazement... and my survival... nothing exploded. (Neither of the pilots got out.)

An A-1 ran off the end of runway while on take-off... with a full bomb load in late Oct 1969. The ordinance "cooked off" all night long. Bullets "firing" randomly and bombs exploding every ten or fifteen minutes for what seemed like hours. The pilot made it out... the Yankee ejection seat should have been fitted to the A-26.

Anyway... following both crashes, the carcasses of the A/C were taken to a hanger to see if "investigators" could find out what went wrong. In both cases the official "story" that came out were in my opinion "bogus". After the "investigations" the wreckage disappeared from the hangar. I suspect that the Thais welcomed the scrap metal... they were always scarfing up on the stuff we left behind.

[NImrodA26]

I suspect you're right about the Thai's scarfing up on the scrap. I always wondered what happened to all the fifty cal. brass that was returned. We had a small trailer with a big wooden box on it that we would back under the nose and dump the brass into. Don't know where it went after that. Back to the bomb dump or somewhere else I guess.
Back at England AFB, the returned brass and live rounds that came back from the AC-47 gunships was saved for recycling/reloading. There was a guy there who did his own reloading. I would get him a box of the brass occasionally. I think he said that 7.62mm and .308 used the same casing and it could be resized or something like that.

[A26 Special K]

Mystery photo of the week. What is going on here and how does it work?? JR

[K5DH]

Wingtip fuel tank attachment?

[Fouga23]

Yup, tiptank

[A26 Special K]

Dean.. Fouga.... yall were on the right track, but you didn't answer all the questions. Yes, it is a tip tank. But what kind? And how does it work..... you see, we noticed that our neighbor's T-33 has 230 gal tanks which coincidentally is the same amount for the K's drop tanks. If yall had told us how they can be detached, we might have been able to "borrow" them. Unfortunately, the window has closed as our neighbor is working really hard on it getting ready for an annual inspection and a return to flight. Oh well. Disappointed in Texas, JR (will just have to work harder to stump yall)

[A26 Special K]

Ok, so here is the stumper of the week. What does the taller of the two projections do in this shot? It's easy once you figure out where it is. Even the Duck Driving Lady could get it, I bet. So how about this one? JR

[A26 Special K]

The avionics guys are going wild with new wiring all over the place. Larry is seen here pulling the wires in for the new intercom system and pushing them out the left side for Stan to pick up and pull out so they can be routed to the aft compartment, ie, the doghouse. We plan to put outlets for the cockpit, doghouse and the avionics bay so that the crew chief can get comm from the outside during engine starts. Fancy, huh?
JR

[A26 Special K]

Stan is pulling wires out from the cockpit as Larry feeds them in this shot so they can be run thru the regular wiring bundles under the armor plate. These again are for the intercom to the back compartment. JR

[A26 Special K]

With the new gray paint in the doghouse and a blue tarp over it, it lends an eerie color to the doghouse. The oxygen tanks are located in the top of the fuselage and almost seem to be glowing green. Wonder if this was an effect left over from Halloween? Could it be Broomrider One's work? JR

[A26 Special K]

Jamie, David B, JR, and Scott have all put in a tremendous amount of time in the doghouse, the real one, not the one that wives and others with evil intentions seem to put us in quite often ..... now, where was I? Oh yes... They cleaned and stripped all of the masking tape from the paint job which was no easy task after it had been on there so long. Then the existing wiring was cleaned and basically made to look new again. This included all the cannon plugs, etc. We have all the old radio gear to re-install and then we can put the gun charger compressor and tank with plumbing in. Along with this, the oxygen blinker and plumbing was cleaned up and made ready to go back in. The fuselage door was painted and re-installed as well. Who knows maybe we will be able to install the top canopy toward the end of the day this coming Saturday. Yall drop by and see. The other JR

[A26 Special K]

Meanwhile, David A turned his attention to the new wiring coming to the junction box in the nosewheel well and then going to the switch actuator for the nose gear indicator that JR cleaned and rebuilt. We found some new actuators so ordered those since they appear to be a little flimsy and will probably need some attention periodically. It would be rather important to our stress levels if the gear showed to be down!!
The other JR

[A26 Special K]

On the other end of the airplane, Big Tim and JR worked on the elevators getting them ready to hang on the stabilizers. This sure will start making the airplane looking... well, like an airplane again with the tail feathers in place. Part of the hold up has been the building of the gap seals for these. The other JR