Big, Beautiful, Beastly, Twin Served America Well

It was a big bad beautiful twin... unless you were on the other side... then you might have thought it a bit of bad news. History tells us that the Douglas A-26 Invader series, otherwise known as the B-26 between 1948–1965, was a multi-engine light attack bomber built by Douglas Aircraft. The bird saw principle use during World War II but also saw service for decades afterwards... including the ignominious Bay of Pigs invasion. Highly modified aircraft continued to serve the US through 1969.

The beast was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27 18-cylinder, double-row radials sporting 2,000 hp each. They had a wingspan of 70 ft, a length of 50' 8", weighed 22,362 lbs (empty) and 41,800 lbs at gross.

 With a cruise speed of 376 mph and a range of 2,914 miles, the A-26B has a service ceiling of 24,500 feet and carried 16-to-18 .50 cal. machine guns along with 6,000 lb bombs. In 19944, the government ponied up $192,457 per bird to bring them to service.

The specific attributes of the A-26B attack bomber include a solid nose that carried six or eight 0.50 in machine guns. The lifetime production totals tallied some 1,355 A-26Bs, with 205 of those coming out of Tulsa, Oklahoma (designated A-26B-5-DT to A-26B-25-DT) and another 1150 from Long Beach, California (designated A-26B-1-DL to A-26B-66-DL).

Some two dozen additional birds were built at Long Beach but not delivered to the government... several of which eventually wound up in the hands of other civil and military customers. The A-26B was redesignated B-26B, under USAF control, in 1948.

Oft confused, name-wise, with the Martin B-26, both airframes used the R-2800 engine, but were undeniably different designs. The last A-26 in active US service worked for the Air National Guard and was retired in 1972, after which it was assigned/donated to the National Air and Space Museum.

FMI: www.boeing.com/history/mdc/invader.htm, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews