Last of the Invaders
A reader tips us off to the restoration of a rare bird.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, May 17, 2010
It’s not often that readers suggest story ideas, but that’s what happened with our feature “Truck Killer,” about the Douglas A-26 Invader, the rugged airplane that served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Frank Nelson, of Lincoln, California, was paging through a back issue when he noticed our then-new “Legends of Vietnam” series. After reading the features about the McDonnell F-4 Phantom and the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, he thought the Invader—which he’d flown as a navigator in 185 missions with the 609th Air Commando Squadron in Vietnam—would make an important addition to the series.
Nelson wrote to editor-in-chief Linda Shiner presenting his idea. But he didn’t stop there. He invited author David Lande to the Air Commando reunion in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and supplied photographs for the story (as did other former members of the 609th), and told us about the restoration of the very last flyable A-26.
The first time Nelson saw an A-26 was in 1966. “I was a navigator on a KC-135, stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas,” he recalls. “I went over to an airshow at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth to see the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber. While I was there, I ran across an A-26 on display. I’d always been an airplane buff, so I knew the airplane had served in World War II and Korea, but I didn’t realize that they had been rebuilt for service in Southeast Asia. In fact, the last I had heard, they were all being abandoned because the wings were falling off.”
Nelson was so impressed with the A-26 that he volunteered for duty in Southeast Asia. One year later, the assignment came through. “It was really another world, as far as the navigator was concerned,” he remembers. “On the KC-135, you had a table with your charts, and I did a lot of work with celestial navigation. In the A-26, you’re sitting in the right [co-pilot’s] seat, and you don’t have the traditional navigation tools that you’d have in a transport-type airplane. At the time I thought, ‘Gee, how am I going to navigate?’ You just point the thing, that’s basically what we did.”
After his tour in Vietnam, Nelson switched to a C-130 unit. “By the time I got through with my tour, I could see the A-26 wasn’t going to be around much longer; we had already lost a fair number of airplanes,” he recalls. He finished his career in the F-111. “It was like being back in the A-26,” he says. “It was a lot faster, of course.”
The A-26 is still part of Nelson’s life. He’s avidly following the efforts of Pacific Prowler (an aircraft restoration group) and the A-26 Legacy Foundation (an organization founded by the children of the members of the 609th) to restore the last flyable A-26A.
In 1964, On Mark Engineering rebuilt 40 Invaders for the U.S. Air Force, incuding one nicknamed Special K, the last off the production line. In late 2009, Pacific Prowler bought Special K from a family in Billings, Montana, and flew the airplane to their headquarters at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth, Texas. Just because the airplane is flyable, “it doesn’t mean there isn’t an awful lot of work to do,” cautions Scott Perdue, Pacific Prowler’s director of operations. “It’s barely airworthy. The restoration will be a tribute to Vietnam veterans,” he continues, “not just the folks that flew this particular airplane, but the folks who maintained it, and others that served in the Vietnam War.”
Pacific Prowler has been restoring aircraft for about seven years. Their flagship is a B-25; the team is also working on a DC-3 and a C-47. Perdue expects the A-26A restoration to take about 16 months; “It all depends on how much money we can raise,” he says. They’ve already stripped the paint and are replacing the Plexiglas windows, which were hazed and brittle after 40 years.
Franklin Poole, of Pacific/Gulf Coast Productions, is documenting the restoration process. (Click here to see video of the aircraft and interviews with former A-26 crewmembers.) But when he met a former A-26 pilot and co-pilot, he decided to change the focus of the documentary “from being a story about the airplane restoration to a story about the airplane and the men that flew her.” Poole interviews the crews as they sit in the aircraft; the airplane, he says, acts “like a time machine.”
If all goes well, Special K will make an appearance at the 609th Air Commando reunion in 2011. You can bet that Frank Nelson will be there to see it fly in. “I guess you could call the A-26 my favorite,” he says. “I think anybody who does a combat tour in a certain airplane, it stands out.”
Comments (16)
Great story on an outstanding mission. I had no idea these zippy lil ships had gotten that scarce. We had an all black one at the Indy Airshow a few years back... No fun pushing back into its 'hole' with only a few Ramp Rats & NO nose wheel steering... Sure loved to watch her fly though! I wish their was a way to take the audio of the #1 Engine start & make it into a ring-tone for my cell phone! that would be cool.:-)
Posted by David Blythe on May 19,2010 | 02:09 PM
I also saw the black A-26 from North Carolina fly at the Maxwell AFB air show this past April. And have seen the A-26C located at the Troy, AL. airport fly. The aircraft looks so smooth and quick in the air. It has always been one of my favorite aircraft; it just looks right, even sitting on the ramp. And anyone who knows about radial engines loves the sound of the P & W R-2800. I'm looking forward to seeing a "Nimrod" bird in flight.
Posted by Jim Birchfield on May 24,2010 | 08:59 AM
Actually there is a way to make a ring tone, and I've done it. Contact me through my Vimeo page linked above and I'll be glad to send it to you.
Posted by Franklin Poole on May 24,2010 | 09:24 AM
There actually is an MP3 ringtone I made of the A-26 engine #1 starting. I have it on my personal cell phone. You may contact me and I'll be happy to send you a copy. franklin@pgctv.com
Posted by Franklin Poole on May 25,2010 | 11:49 AM
26 May 2010
I am one of the origional Nimrods that was on project "Big Eagle" June 1966. I flew 64-671 from England AFB to NKP.
Spent 6 1/2 months flying these wonderful truck killers along the trail.
I live in Fort Worth and have seen 679 at Meacham twice. I it this past weekend. She is an the hanger and restoration has already started. I plan to go see the progress from time to time.
Posted by Joe Maynard on May 26,2010 | 10:27 AM
Great to read to stories and history of the A26. I spent a lot of time in the "back end" of them in the Navy. In Hawaii in 1956-7 with VU-1 a utility squadron we flew the JD-1 which was the Navy designation. Used for towing targets for ships and other aircraft and some occasional high altitude mapping. Our aircraft had a search light mounted in the nose and I heard they were used for Anti Sub warfare at one time. It was "hot" landing coming over the fence at 105 plus knots where as our jets approached at 90 to 95. The Navy museum at Pensocola hase one on display.
Posted by J. Charles Gardner on May 30,2010 | 01:15 PM
This segment is but a few frames of the 500 or so feet of 8mm film I took at England AFB and NKP RTAFB, Thailand. Ascending the ladder and flying the left seat as aircraft commander, is (then Capt) Paul Marschalk who went on to a long career as an airline captain. I am the one in the right seat. No, there were no restrictions back then on smoking as long as the bomb bay tank was empty and not leaking. At the time we and the A-26 were an enigma. We were having more success at interdicting trucks than any other weapons system while the Air Force and Navy were trying to promote their "all jet" image. Our success made the analysts scratch their collective heads. NWS
Posted by Nolan Schmidt on June 5,2010 | 09:57 AM
There are two of these sitting at KLRU.
Posted by Msmith on June 8,2010 | 11:51 PM
I was a Navigator on the A-26 in 1969. I earned my 100 mission patch before they closed us down (big mistake). I had the privilege of flying one back to Davis Monthan bone yard. I will never forget this airplane till the day I die. I felt it was the greatest airplane that a Navigator could fly. It was the highlight of my 21 year career in the Air Force. I really miss flying the 26.
Posted by Mike Hickly on July 6,2010 | 09:46 PM
Not to detract from the B - 26 Invader, but can someone explain to me why the Air Force would give two planes the same name B-26. My father flew a Marauder B-26 in WWII, flying 55 plus missions over 2 years in the MTO with the 12 Air Force 319th bomber group (2 presidential citations and a French Croix de Guerre with palms). Despite its impressive flying and combat ability, most of the Marauders were destroyed by the US at the end of the war. It was if they were trying to destroy all records or evidence of this airplane. I know of one flying example near Tampa in a museum, and couple of others on hard display at Wright Paterson and Le Bourget air museums. The Confederate air force flew one but I think it was wrecked in a crash. Anyone help me on this... EDITORS' REPLY: From our story "Truck Killer," in the June/July 2010 issue: In 1948, the military made a switch that would lead to confusion among historians for years to come: The A-26 was redesignated the B-26. The confusion still persists. The B-26 Marauder, manufactured by Martin during World War II, had been retired from the Air Force inventory by 1948. Decades later, John Moench, a retired major general who had been in the Air Materiel Command early in his career, wrote an explanation for the B-26 Marauder Historical Society: “[The Air Force] had no trouble converting a P-51 to an F-51 or a P-80 to an F-80. But, when it [came] to the A-26, there was a dilemma. To preserve the Martin B-26 ‘Marauder’ nomenclature, following my suggestion, the initial attempt…was to pick up a new number…as the next numbered ‘B’ in the sixty series. But [others] did not like this as it upset the progressive numbering attached to advancing design…. As a result, with a lot of reluctance and since there was no Martin B-26 ‘Marauder’ left in the inventory…[the Douglas] ‘A-26’ became the B-26. I resisted the idea as long as a major could, but I never foresaw the extent to which later confusion would arise.” Adding to the confusion, the Invader would have its “A” (for “attack”) designation restored in 1966. To this day, all who flew the Invader from the late 1940s until the early 1960s—including the prologue of Vietnam—still call the aircraft the B-26; those who flew it earlier and later call it the A-26.
Posted by Patrick McDonnell on July 13,2010 | 12:19 PM
My Dad;Kenny McCloud,Col.,USAF-Ret. flew the B-26 in Korea with the 452nd Bomb Group.His plane was named ;"Yer Old Dad" and had a cartoon of an old hillbilly walking downhill from an outhouse.His plane's numbers were; 434703.I've run across info Dad had that came from a group that was restoring an A-26 at'The Air Station", Arlington,WA,dated;Jan-Feb 1997.This group was honoring one of their fathers who also had flown in a later "Yer Old Dad".I've tried to find the whereabouts of the plane,but my info is way old.My Dad recently "slipped the surly bonds" on 24 Mar,just wondering if anyone has an update on this aircraft.I don't have a tail number. I read that "that there are few B26's left".A few years ago,I read that there were several still flying fire fighting duties in Canada.I remember their planes were painted yellow.Has anyone any news on these aircraft ? I was stationed at Travis AFB in 1968,and saw the last unmodified B-26 come through on its way to a museum-I'm told.Highly polished and presumably someone's "personal baby".A few months later,another of my favorites came through;a C-121,also highly polished.The last one that stopped by,was a B-58 Hustler.As it was still classified AND roped off,under guard,we "never saw it" ! Thanks for great articles.Anyone with comments or info pertaining to the above may contact me at my e-mail address. Mike McCloud mikemccloud [at] centurytel.net
Posted by Mike McCloud on July 21,2010 | 12:31 AM
There was another unsung role which the Douglas B-26 (not the Martin "one a day in Tampa Bay" B-26) played in USAF service.
We all know the interdiction service in Korea and later in Vietnam with the French AF in de original version, then later with the revamped version of the In Mark conversion. Some were relegated to that awful job of elderly planes - target towing (at least in the Europe theater). But who has heard of the RAVEN version, also black, as were all the Korea night flyers. When I arrived as a 2nd Lt for my first duty station with the 42nd TacRecon Sqdn (E&W)at Spangdahlem AB, Germany in 1957, I was totaly surprised to find our sqdn still had some B-26's, bristling with antenna's and the bomb bay area filled with black boxes and a couple brave souls (EWO's) sitting in the darkness back there peering at their scopes.
It was like driving a Ferrari after growing up on a Chevy. What a sports car. Beginning with the blue smoke cloud when starting up, and then that sound!! Anyway, much too soon, after just a couple months the last one departed and we were all jet with the RB-66C (Elint version) and WB-66D (westher recon version. A very staid steed and certainly the very opposite of a sports car.
The Ravens were happy, though, they now had ejection seats - but they all went ...down !
RHD
Posted by Robert Domey on August 11,2010 | 09:20 AM
We had 4 JD-1 in VU-2 at Quonset Point NAS (R.I.) that i was priviledged to fly in as a crewman in that area for target towing and as radar targets for ship radar calibration. In the winter we were sent to San Juan,P.R. at CGAS Isla Grande for the same reasons. We had 2 NAPs (Enlisted Naval aviation Pilots) and when we were asked by our "customers" for the pilots name and rank, there was usually disbelief when they were informed it was an all-enlisted aircrew that was providing the service. One was a Chief Aviation Machinists Mate and the other a Aviation Ordinanceman First Class. The latter was also qualified as the Plane Commander in R-7Vs In VR-1 at NAS Patuxent River Maryland, R-7s were C-121s.
Posted by Charlie Myers on September 19,2010 | 01:46 AM
RE: Mike McCloud from July of 2010. To my knowledge there are no more firefighter A-26's left in service. The yellow ones you mention are from AirSpray in Red Deer, Alberta, CA. Their home page still shows a picture of A-26s lined up for a fire suppression run. They have one or two running aircraft for sale, but they've moved on to other aircraft for fire suppression at this point.
As for B-26s there is one left that flies, and its mentioned in the articles here. I'm involved with the restoration of that aircraft. It is complete in its Vietnam configuration. All other B-26Ks have been scrapped or are in museums or static displays around the world. There is around a half dozen I think still in existence. Come see ours at Greatest Generation Aircraft housed in the Vintage Flying Museum at Meacham Field in Fort Worth, TX. franklin at pgctv . com
Posted by Franklin Poole on March 1,2011 | 10:14 AM
I was with the 452nd bomb group,728th bomb squadron as an assistant crew chief on "Yer Ole Dad" a Douglas B26b, 434703 in Korea.It was a great plane, very reliable, we were one of the first crews to achieve 75 missions without an abort.
Posted by Dale C. Rost on September 3,2011 | 04:04 PM
For clarification, let me point out. There are Douglas A-26's. There are On Mark A-26's that were civilian conversions for executive transport. There were 40 On Mark rebulds of military A-26's into the B-26K which was later changed to A-26A when it was based in Thailand. Our K model is the only flyable one left. While the two airplanes at Las Cruces, NM, appear similar they are in fact, On Mark executive conversions. There is a vast difference in the two. Execs had their bomb bays sealed and converted into a cabin for openers. Our K was never touched by any of the executive or tanker changes. It is just as it was when operated by the Air Force except for the machine guns that were removed. All other military equipment is present and accounted for. The restoration target for return to flight is summer 2012.
Posted by Jim Reynolds on January 10,2012 | 01:47 PM