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

[airnutz]

Just helpin' JR stay the course...unless he's got additional info on Tanker 10...
http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id228.html

[A26 Special K]

Hi Mark, thanks!! Hmmmm, don't think this is a 70's photo. The tail number is the reason. The original airplane was born as a C model in late 1945 with 44-35708 on the birth certificate. It eventually went to the French AF and served in Indochina (VN). It came back after that unpleasantness and was reworked by OnMark. Then it eventually ended up in Canada with Air Spray as a tanker, hence the paint job in the picture. It was acquired by some nice folks in Portland, OR, in 2007 for conversion back to what looks like a B model with the solid nose. N26PJ is from Premier Jets which is based in Portland. The airplane is in beautiful ANG colors now and looks really sharp. It would be one of those we would like to fly formation with when we go on the west coast tour in probably two years or so. Portland would be on our tour stop list. Thanks for digging this one up. Regards, JR

[A26 Special K]

Just helpin' JR stay the course...unless he's got additional info on Tanker 10...
http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id228.html

You beat me to it!! But that is just great! The more people get interested in the A-26, the better it will be for all of us. Bout time this beauty got some recognition. Thanks, JR

[NImrodA26]

Here's some history on Tanker 10

http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id228.html

[A26 Special K]

Airnutz, here is a shot of Stan and Alex hanging the armor plate over the wire run along the side of the fuselage. Maybe the edge will give you an idea of how thick this particular section is.

So Mark A, what kind of book would you like to see about this project? Documentary? Humorous? Story? History? Anybody else who would like to make suggestions for it, please join in. We think it would be a great idea. Regards, JR

[shrike]

Airnutz, here is a shot of Stan and Alex hanging the armor plate over the wire run along the side of the fuselage. Maybe the edge will give you an idea of how thick this particular section is.

Were the wood fairing strips original or an On-Mark add on?

[A26 Special K]

Shrike: good question about the wood fairings. Gosh, that is hard to tell. I looked in the maintenance manual for A/B-26's from WWII and didn't find any reference to them. Ditto about the K model manual as well, but we know K has them. Many of the surviving A-26's have been modified to get rid of the fuselage armor plate to save weight. When the bomb bay doors were removed and the area converted to a passenger compartment, the sides of the fuselages were reskinned with flush aluminum sheet. Buba, for instance is all smooth down the fuselage. No evidence of armor plate left except on the bottom of the nacelles where it was an integral part. I have looked at a few pics of the original mil version and can see the fuselage plates on some, but not well enough to tell if there are any wood fairings. Perhaps our buddy Mark Allen M can provide some better shots which might show it. I noticed that even the Air Force Museum K model has some of the fairings missing. Haven't gotten a close look at the others yet, but will see if I can find some. The thing is that armor plate sticking out in the breeze would represent some drag that I would tend to think the AF would not want from the first versions on down. Fairings would help with that problem. Perhaps we can get some help from our WIXer's in the know who worked on the pre-K versions before any executive or air tanker conversions took place?? Regards, JR

[hahnej]

Doesn't buba have the strips at the nose end. If not, then Cavanaugh's must. I've seen them somewhere.

[steve dickey]

The number of A-26's in restoration is now growing at an astounding rate. We just heard about another project in Tuscon. There is one in PHX as well. Mississippi, Houston, Las Cruces, NM, Guthrie, OK, and the list goes on. Interest in picking up and we say it is about time. This is a great airplane and that recognition is long overdue. Any others out there in the US? There is one in France that has been discussed here before. What's the scoop??? JR

JR, which Invader is getting worked on in Cruces, the black one finally?!
And also which one is in Tucson and where? And the phx one? Thanx.

[airnutz]

Just helpin' JR stay the course...unless he's got additional info on Tanker 10...
http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id228.html

You beat me to it!! But that is just great! The more people get interested in the A-26, the better it will be for all of us. Bout time this beauty got some recognition. Thanks, JR

Ahhh, thanks for the armor plate photo..."deflection protection?" I'm not a newcomer to coveting the Invader, but I've only seen 'em fly firsthand a couple of times and they do make quite an impression. I was fortunate to be in the perfect spot to catch "City of Waco" at the bottom of the swoop of his on the deck pass once...WOOOF, that was a hoot, being sound-punched in the head and solar plexus with an attack of the willies! (Had an F-4 do that to me once violently and most unpleasurably, but that's another story). The A-26 wasn't just an arrival...That was an Entrance!
I've realllly enjoyed this thread since ya'll started it JR ! If I ever rode in one the way I'd like to, my ticker probably couldn't take it...but what a way to go! Youz guyz keep up the good work on K and thanks for sharing your time with us penguins...

[A26 Special K]

Steve D... yes, the black one in Cruces is being worked on. The owner lives close here in TX and drops by fairly often to pick our brains about stuff. The AZ airplanes were flying but were down for maintenance and some restoration.... Buckeye and Avra Valley to be more specific. You are probably familiar with those. Mississippi is a static restoration by the Ms ANG, which is kinda interesting because several of the A-26 folks involved in the Bay of Pigs A-26 force came out of there. Some of the training of the other folks occurred at the original Marana airport, former AFB. One of the former Cubans involved with that has visited K and told us some great stories. Several pages back, I think we featured a picture of him. A-26's were first used in spook stuff when they were involved in dropping agents in Europe in WWII in the Carpetbagger missions. The agents were laid out in the bomb bay and when they hit the drop zone the doors opened and swooooosh.. gone. Bet that was a surprise every time. Later, they were used in combat in the Congo and many places in Central and S. America for mapping. The list goes on. Thanks for your interest. JR

[A26 Special K]

Airnutz: appreciate your comments. I have flown the Spirit of Waco you mentioned. It is now the Midnight Express, but I still affectionately still call it Buba. We go way back to when it was in Amarillo before Waco CAF acquired it. Plans from the Ft Worth Invader Squadron which now operates it is to take it down for winter maintenance for about 90 days which will turn into 120 days cause these things always take longer than planned, right? I hope to be part of the crew flying it to airshows in the Spring so maybe we will be at one close to you. Please come see us and chat awhile. We will have the ride program going so perhaps you can do that as well. I am still hoping K will be ready for Oshkosh by July 20th of next summer. That would be a big hoot to make an arrival there!! Regards, JR

[SKYDREAM]

The number of A-26's in restoration is now growing at an astounding rate. We just heard about another project in Tuscon. There is one in PHX as well. Mississippi, Houston, Las Cruces, NM, Guthrie, OK, and the list goes on. Interest in picking up and we say it is about time. This is a great airplane and that recognition is long overdue. Any others out there in the US? There is one in France that has been discussed here before. What's the scoop??? JR

JR is right, the number of A26 in restoration increases. Our project in France is progressing well, we are still far from being able to fly with but we are very motivated.
The history of special K is captivating and because we don't want to sature this forum with stories of A26 project, we chose not to expose the advanced our work here. If you are interested, you can follow the history of restoration in France on Facebook with pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/YTFP-Yew ... tos_stream

Thanks JR to give us the way for our project, it's motivating for us each days.

Cheers, Christophe.

[NImrodA26]

As was mentioned back on page 211, Project Big Eagle was the original deployment of the A-26's to NKP, Thailand. During some off time, myself and a couple others came up with the idea of a patch. The one above is the prototype I designed, and ahd made in NKP. It was handmade, and the guy made Air Commando one word! Part of this patch was subsequently used for the final version. I was very fortunate last week to find one of the original patches on Ebay and now have it in my collection. I subsequently had a jacket made in downtown NKP with the above logo on the back also.

[NImrodA26]

This is the final version of the Big Eagle patch we had made. As I recall, only about 200 of the original patches were made, so they are fairly rare. Like a dummy, I traded the only one I had for some insulated flight underwear when I returned to England AFB, and thought it was "cold", compared to NKP.