Douglas A 26 / B 26 Invader Light Bomber & Ground Attack Aircraft | WW2, Korea, Vietnam.1942 - 1980

And of course there was the B26 used at the Bay of Pigs.
A US plane painted up in Cuban airforce livery.

whats with the arabic ?

A26s when empty and low of Fuel, were known to out pace Mustangs on many occasions

B52 outlived this relic by nearly twice

My dad had thousands of hours in these as well as A-20, B-17, B-29, B-50 and various cargo planes as bomber and cargo squadrons were reconstituted numerous times. His records were mostly destroyed in the fire in 1973 at the records center, but we have been able to piece together some of it. I know he was listed as in offensive actions in South America and likely Vietnam in these planes - I have actually visited On Mark Engineering with him (the video narration calls it Mark Engineering) discussing a job prospect in the late 60s - they knew him well so I assume he had time in Ks. One of the Guppys was being worked on at the time - I believe it was Van Nuys airstrip

Uh, I guess the F-15, F-16, B-52, B-1, A-10 etc were all not "combat aircraft" then. This video sucks very badly.

Our father was a Douglas AC machinist in Long Beach California on the A-26 thru WWII. We lived in company housing located nearby in Lakewood, Ca. Finished planes could be heard flying out for delivery throughout the day (I was 3yo), likely by WAFP volunteers, aka as WASP- Women Airforce Service Pilots.
When the war ended, Douglas offered the homes to employees for just a few thousand. However with no job, father's family fell on hard times with so many looking for non-defense jobs but we survived; dad found employment at Sears and we moved over to ex-company housing surplused by US Rubber (Uniroyal), Chrysler, B.F. Goodrich and others, in ELA.

One of my favorite attack aircraft. A fine light bomber.

They did no carry canon operationally but I believe that, early on in its design stage, such armament was considered.

The A20 Havoc was known in Britain as the Boston, not the A26, as mentioned in this video! Otherwise great video! 👍

Great video the A=26 was a very elegant plane. FYI I think the A-20 Havoc and the Bristol Beaufighter were two of the most underrated aircraft of the allies. The A-20 was not as good as the A-26 and the Beaufighter was not as good as the Mosquito but they both did yeoman like work throughout the war.

B-52,A-6 ,C-130

"On Mark Engineering was an American aircraft remanufacturing company established in 1954 at Van Nuys Airport in California. Its most significant products were rebuilding military surplus A-26 Invaders into executive transports"

The USAF only rebuilt 40 airframes into the B-26K model, not 41.

Another great doc. To think they hung on til the A-7????? Question, what caliber were the gun packs?

Douglas built, exactly, 2,503 Invaders which rolled off the line. The USAF didnt accept all them, so many were sent directly to storage and either sold or scrapped.

The nose wasnt the only difference between the prototypes. The XA-26-A night fighter protoype also had 4x 20mm cannons mounted in a tub under the fuselage and a shorter bomb bay.

Okay, hold on. The test flight was at Mines Field, CA in Jul 1942, but the first combat trials of the A-26 didnt happen until Jul 1944 in the PTO and Aug 1944 in the ETO. This year-long delay was due to many changes made to the Invader between the test flight and production development. To say that it was accepted with few changes and rushed into combat is not accruate. Additionally, crews had to trained on the Inavder. While the reception was generally good, the deployment and conversion was relatively slow.

Technically, the 3rd Bomb Group used A-26s in combat before anyone. And the 416th wasnt the first unit. Project Squadron was technically the first unit in the PTO. They were attached to the 386th BG and conducted combat tests in Aug and Sep. Then Project Squadron was retasked with training trained the 416th BG after that.

The upper turret could only be used for strafing on the flat top canopies. When they switched to the clamshell/bubble top design this feature was deleted.

Also, the upper and lower turrets are essentially identical, and they both featured Browning M2 .50 cals. The ammo boxes were all universal and carried 500 rounds each. They didnt load them differently between upper and lower turrets.

No Invader could bring 18 guns to bear in practice. While the 6-gun nose was upgraded to an 8-gun nose, the underwing gun pods were dropped in favor of internal wing guns, featuring 3 guns per wing. The introduction of these features also conincided with the revised canopy which removed the ability for the upper turret to be used. 8+(3x2)=14 forward guns on late models. 6+8+2=16 on early models.

The only Invaders to carry radars were the French B-26N variant in Algeria, and the US Navy JD-1. None of them carried radar for night bombing missions.

The XA-26F Jet engine prototype was not the only Invader built after 2 Sep 1945. There were at least 20 thay have records of being completed between 2 Sep and 21 Dec 1945.

By the time of Vietnam the USAF had plenty of capable strategic bombers. The Invaders were used to great effect - the highest ground-target kill counts and per mission kill counts of any plane - because they could loiter over an area for a long time looking for targets, and they could drop in low and slow and strafe enemy convoys, hitting nearly every truck, neither of those things could be done by the jet bombers.

personally..B-25 and a low slung 75mm 4 50 on nacelles. Came to end your party. Usually as the sun was setting.

The first A-26As in Vietnam were flown by the 603rd SOS, Detachment 1. The 606th wasnt formed until 6 months later.

The Invaders were pulled from Vietnam due to Bureaucratic reasons, namely high ranking Generals wanting to allow the jets more targets. There were enough supplies and airframes to keep the Invaders on station for several more years.

sigh the A-26As were mothballed. Every Imvader that came back was sent to Davis-Monthan. They sat in mothball for a full 2 years before the first ones were actually scrapped. Many of them sat in mothball a lot longer, the last being disposed of in 1975. Not all were scrapped either. 3 were given to museums. Another 3 were sold to the civilian market where they were intended for use as Air Racers and Fire bombers. Of those, one still survives.

American answer to the British Mosquito

The original B 26 was Martin's Marauder. They were fazed out post war and the Douglas A 26 took on their number as bombers becoming B 26's. Later, when Thailand objected to bombers using their bases they became A 26's again.

We now see where the Pedegree of the A-10 went after the WW2 Thunderbolt.

I had touched an A26 at Lackland 12 years ago. Knew nothing about them. Now I know BETTER.

It was designated the A26 in Southeast Asia because use of any "B" (bomber) aircraft was deemed to be illegal in that theatre of operation because of it being a "defensive war". Same plane, same armament just a name game.

Very nice video on the Douglas A-26/B-26 Invader medium bomber. Thankyou for sharing. Theres no doubt that the Douglas A-26/B-26 Invader is only the second longest serving aircraft in the USAF's inventory. The single most longest serving aircraft in the USAF's inventory still goes to the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. There are still plans to upgrade the current fleet of B-52's so they will last an additional 60 to 80 years. Can you imagine a bomber being in USAF service for over 100 years? The B-52 is certainly well on its way to achieving this milestone in aviation history.

By far the best to engine bomber ever made

I had a great uncle who was one of the engineers. Who designed the A26.

Why is the ultimate 4-engined RB-57, with an 80,000 feet ceiling, not mentioned? I find it odd that the Aussie-made Canberra gor the RAAF is likewise not covered here, it saw much combat use during the Vietnam War, operating with US direction. The USAF’s own figures show that the RAAF Canberras flying purely in the tactical bombing role were responsible for 16% of confirmed bomb damage to the Communist enemy, despite making up only 4% of the tactical bomber strength.

Aren’t there any water bomber versions still flying, full or part scale?

Most Excellent!

Saying that the A-26 was good at dogfighting and then mentioning that their record is 7 kills to 67 losses is a contradiction.

There is one A26 K model that has been airworthy lately...Known as Special K she suffered a landing gear failure and is again under repair...Parts are hard to come by so they're scouring the planet for replacement parts..Hopefully by the end of 2024 she will be back in the air..

Script writer is sloppy as hell. "Canons" no. A-26K were conversions by "On the Mark". Sorry this channel just became not worth botheeing with

I have a photograph of Brown Nose taken by my dad on the flight line in Korea. It had a huge number of missions. Wonder what ultimately happened to it.

Ed Heineman, who was the chief designer of this aircraft at Douglas, was also responsible for many other fine aircraft including the SBD(scout bomber douglas), The SBD was a tough, extremely resilient and reliable aircraft and though throughout the war attempts were made to retire it, a suitable replacement never materialized.

Is this the one they called the Baltimore Whore? (no visible means of support)

B-52's have been in service far longer than this plane.

The B-52 has had a much longer service career than the A-26. And there are other combat aircraft with longer service lives. The F-16, for example, entered service in the late 1970s and is also still in service. WTH?