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Contact Info
Home Town Yakima, Washington
Last Address 22208 - 8th Avenue South Des Moines, Washington 98198
Date of Passing Jun 18, 2016
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
1946-1947, A-26 (B-26) Invader
From Year 1946
To Year 1947
Personal Memories
At this time I was an assistant crew chief on a Douglas A-26 twin engine bomber called the Invader. I was assigned to a night photo recon squadron, the 41st Night Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. I was going about my duties when a Sgt. came up to me and said I was scheduled for a test flight on an aircraft that had two flights with the right engine backfiring and having a loss of power. It had been thoroughly checked and was ready and I would go with a test pilot. My rank was Tech Sgt. at the time.
We boarded the aircraft, it had a ladder on the side and you crawled into two seats side by side. Both engines started normally and we taxied to the end of the runway. On engine run-up everything was normal and we called the tower for take-off and proceeded down the runway. At about the point of no return, the right engine, to my right, started backfiring and the pilot hit the feathering button, which changed the engine to a no-drag angle and we retracted the landing gear and went to full throttle on the left engine. When we reached the end of the runway, which had 75 to 100 foot trees, and we clearded the trees by a few feet and called, "Mayday" to the tower. We got a "Roger" from them and "you are cleared for an emergency landing". We were able to go up about 200 feet with the left engine on full throttle and purring nicely. All went well except for our sweat. We got lined up for the landing and made it to where emergency vehicles were parked in mid-field. What a relief to feel the ground under us!
The airplane was parked and mechanics got right with it. They removed the carburetor and found the supercharger vanes had been damaged by a foreign object, probably not from something picked on the runway but more aptly to be a small tool, socket or something to create foreight object damage.
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A-26 (B-26) Invader Details
Aircraft/Missile Information
Model Douglas A-26B Invader Length 50.00 ft | 15.24 m Width 70.01 ft | 21.34 m Height 18.50 ft | 5.64 m Engine(s) 2 x 2,000 hp (1,492 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27 Air-Cooled Radial Piston Engines. Empty Weight 22,370 lbs | 10,147 kg MTOW 35,001 lbs | 15,876 kg Max Speed 355 mph | 572 km/h | 309 kts Max Range 1,401 miles | 2,255 km Ceiling 22,096 ft | 6,735 m | 4.2 miles Climb Rate 1,250 ft/min (381 m/min) Hardpoints 0 Armament 6 x 12.7mm machine guns in forward-fixed nose assembly (removed in A-26C in place of Bombardier position). 2 x 12.7mm machine guns in locked forward-facing turret.
Up to 4,000lbs of internal ordnance.
Additional: 4 x dual 12.7mm machine gun "packs" underwing (two-guns per pack for a total of eight possible underwing gun positions).
Additional air-to-surface 5-inch rockets as necessitated by mission-specific parameters. Accommodations 3
Major Variants
* A-26B - Initial Production Model in service with European Theater. * A-26C - Pacific Theater Production Model with 6 x 12.7mm nose-mounted machine gun assembly removed for bombardier position.
Type Number built/ converted Remarks B-26K 40 Counter insurgency aircraft
Serial numbers: 64-17640 to 64-17679
SPECIFICATIONS: Span: 71 ft. 6 in. Length: 51 ft. 7 in. Height: 19 ft. Weight: 38,314 lbs. maximum Armament: Eight .50 cal. nose machine guns, eight wing pylons capable of carrying 8,000 lbs. of mixed ordnance and 4,000 lbs. of bombs internally Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-52Ws of 2,500 hp (maximum with water injection) Crew: Two Cost: $577,000
PERFORMANCE: Max. speed: 323 mph/281 knots Cruising speed: 310 mph/270 knots Range: 2,700 statute miles/2,346 nautical miles Service ceiling: 30,000 ft.
