Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Three-seat attack bomber

Power Plant:

Two 1,492 kw (2,000 hp) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-79 Double Wasp eighteen-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engines

Specifications:

Armament:

Two 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine-guns fixed firing forward in nose; two 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine-guns in upper and lower turrets; four or eight 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine-guns in removable packages; up to 227 kg (500 lb) bombs; or one 908 kg (2,000 lb) torpedo externally under each wing; max bomb load 2,724 kg (6,000 lb)

History:

Design of the Douglas A-26 Invader (renamed B-26 in 1948) has been attributed to a team led by Ed Heinemann at the Douglas Aircraft Company’s El Segundo, California, plant, the prototype flying for the first time on 10 July 1942. This aircraft had a transparent nose, and was to be a night fighter, but many of the production aircraft, the A-26B and A-26C models, had a solid nose fitted with up to fourteen 12.7 mm (0.50 in) machine-guns.

Four early production Douglas A-26B-5-DLs were delivered to the United States 5th Air Force in mid 1944 for combat testing with the 13th Bombardment Squadron, 3rd Bombardment Group. In September 1945 the British Air Ministry requested from the US via Lend-Lease enough A-26 Invaders to equip, in addition to British units, three RNZAF and four RAAF European Squadrons in 1945. The requirement referred to 240 aircraft for the Australian units and 180 for the NZ units. It was expected a further 120 airframes would be required for the second half of 1945 and a similar amount for the first half of 1946. In the event, none of these aircraft were delivered to RNZAF or RAAF units and only two were delivered to the RAF.

A brief evaluation of the type occurred in Papua New Guinea in 1944, and the type entered service in the European Theatre that year, equipping units of the US 9th Air Force. Plans were put in train to convert all Douglas A-20 Boston, North American B-25 Mitchell and Martin B-26 Marauder units to the new aircraft, but the war in Europe ended before this could occur and, with the surrender of Japan, production contracts were cut.

The type then saw extensive service in the Korean War and a B-26 (as it had become known) had the distinction of dropping the last bombs of that war on 27 July 1953. During that conflict the US 3rd and 17th Bomber Groups claimed 40,000 enemy vehicles, 4,000 rail cars and 400 locomotives destroyed. Those two groups, and the 452nd Bomber Group, lost a total of 148 aircraft during the 37 months of the war.

After World War II France acquired 111 examples on loan from the USAF to equip three bomber groups, and they saw service in Indo-China and Algeria.

Douglas built 1,355 production Douglas A-26Bs and 1,091 Douglas A-26Cs. On Mark Engineering developed a model known as the YB-26K Counter Invader, which utilised clip-on gun pods, increased wingspan, normal gross weight increased to 18,598 kg (41,000 lb), 1,865 kw (2,500 hp) engines and max speed increased to 639 km/h (397 mph). Forty were ordered by the USAF in 1963 and were used in the night interdiction role in Vietnam over the Ho Chi Minh trail until withdrawn in November 1969.

Probably the last occasion the type was used in the offensive role was in Nicaragua in 1978-1979. Operators of the A-26 bomber included Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Congolese Republic, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Indonesia, Laos, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Vietnam.

In 1947 a civilian-owned Douglas A-26B, sponsored by Milton Reynolds and flown by William Odom, beat the pre-war round-the-world record set by Howard Hughes. Leaving La Guardia, New York on 12 April 1947 in ‘Reynolds Bombshell’ (NX67834) and flying eastbound it landed back at La Guardia on 16 April in an elapsed time of 78 hrs 55 mins and 56 seconds. The same aircraft, again flown by William Odom, left on 7 August 1947 and beat its own record, this time in an elapsed time of 73 hrs 5 mins 11 seconds. Average speed, excluding refuelling stops, was 498.9 km/h (310.6 mph).

After retirement from active service On Mark Engineering converted a number of A-26s to executive transports in three variants, having a re-designed fuselage, a Douglas DC-7 heated windshield, and other improvements, one being pressurised. A number were used in the United States as borate bombers for fire fighting, others for fish re-stocking of lakes and rivers, and others have been restored by warbird enthusiasts. An A-26 (N4000K) operated for some months out of Darwin, NT alongside a Consolidated Catalina (N68740) in the 1980s on mineral survey work.

In 1998 an A-26C-50-DT (serial 44-3587), which had been converted to high-speed transport configuration by On Mark Engineering Company in California as N320, was imported to Caboolture, QLD. During its life it saw service with the US Confederate Air Force, carrying  the registration N99426, and the name ‘The Hustler’. It was damaged at Tamiami Airport in Florida by Hurricane Andrew on 24 August 1992. It was expected to be restored to airworthiness but in the event was sold and returned to the United States.

In 2005 it was announced an A-26C (c/n 29177 – C-FPGP ‘Holy Smoke’, ex N3328G, 44-35898) was to be imported from Canada for operations by a Queensland operator. This aircraft was built in January 1944 at Tulsa, Oklahoma as a A-26C (later B-26) and had an interesting life, in 1968 being entered as Race No 76 at the Reno Air Races in Nevada, later going to Air Spray Ltd at Red Deer, Alberta, Canada as a JB-26C fire-bomber “Air Tanker No 2” and became CF-PGP, later C-FPGP. The company moved to Red Deer in 1979 from where the aircraft was used as a forest fire tanker by Air Spray Ltd until the aircraft was retired and sold.

The aircraft was flown to Australia, arriving in Brisbane, QLD on 25 October 2006 where it became VH-VNI. It was to be painted in the colour scheme of 44-34553 ‘Hollywood Hangover’, an aircraft flown in Korea by the 728th Bomber Squadron of the 452nd Bomber Wing, but this has not occurred. It has not flown in Australia since arriving and has been obtained by the Reevers Air Museum in South Australia.

In late 2009 a further example arrived at Bankstown, NSW this being a Douglas A-26C (ex C-GPTW, N9402Z, 43-22653) which had operated in Alberta, Canada, with Air Spray of Red Deer, and previously from 1963 with Idaho Air Tankers of Boise, Idaho, as a firebomber. Work progressed for some time to restore this aircraft to airworthiness but was never completed. The aircraft was sold to the Australian Aviation Museum at Bankstown, NSW and was placed on display.  Following the closure of the museum in 2018 it was towed to storage at Bankstown but its future is uncertain.

Other A-26s have visited Australia. An A-26B (N6836D) visited Sydney, NSW in October 1970. This aircraft was owned by Rock Island Oil & Refining Company and had served with the USAF as 44-34390, later going to the French Air Force and serving in Indo China. It was eventually converted to VIP configuration as a Rock Island Monarch 26. It was lost during drug smuggling operations.