best medium bomber

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The pilots position in the B25 was forward of the engine nacelles. In the A26, the pilot is astride the nacelle.

At 250mph 100 feet over the "deck", you sure need that extra margine of visibility.
 
syscom3 said:
The pilots position in the B25 was forward of the engine nacelles. In the A26, the pilot is astride the nacelle.

At 250mph 100 feet over the "deck", you sure need that extra margine of visibility.
Click to expand...

The B-25 offered better visibility but the area restricted by the A-26s engines isn't a show stopper at low altitude - you could still see the lower 2 and 10 o'clock positions - important when landing - its at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions where the most obstruction is apparent.

But in essence almost every aircraft has a blind spot where visibility is limited...


 
I saw a programme a while back that was uncovering an A-26 wreckage. They discovered it was actually two A-26s , and the programme went on to discuss what had happened. In the end, they figured that these aircraft had crashed and become locked together in mid-air, then gone down.

It then went on to discuss the visibility problems because of the engines, and quite a few pilots complained about formation flying and said it was quite hazardous. But I don't recall mention anything of low level flying ...
 

I could see the formation hazard, especially if each aircraft weren't stepped down....
 
Formation accidents are a natural hazard of formation flying turn your head a bit a 2 degree turn and its over especially in high performance a/c . We had a couple of Jags hit each other once both went down the crews managed to eject and later at the bar someone asked how much the Jags were worth one of the Jag guys said f*** all now
 

There have numerous times that we have been doing formation flying and almost hit another aircraft. I dont know how many times I had to yell out "Break Left, Break Left, Break Left!"
 
Glider said:
I was always taught to keep my eyes on the one your formating on, never ever take your eyes off it and trust the lead.
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I've done formation flying with light aircraft - we "align" the nose and main landing gear and close in on that (which will put you at a 45 degree angle) Then you continually watch the lead...I've been in a 5 plane formation about 15 feet apart doing this.

In the jet its similar as you take a mental picture of where you should be if you're #2. You continually change power settings to stay within the right distace and sometimes use a little pitch to slow down, but as you mention glider, never take your eyes off the leader....
 

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We never had the luxury of adjusting the power, a touch of airbrake which needed care as they tended to pop wide open. For obvious reasons we couldn't get as close as we had to be able to manoever away if the speeds got out of sync.
 
Glider said:
We never had the luxury of adjusting the power, a touch of airbrake which needed care as they tended to pop wide open. For obvious reasons we couldn't get as close as we had to be able to manoever away if the speeds got out of sync.
Click to expand...
That I could understand - flying formation is a great challange, I could imagine doing it in a sailplane is 10x more challenging, my hats off to you!
 
well in my point of view b-26s was one of the best bombers used in italy over the war
 
Hi,

Sorry to dig up an old thread... but I do have a severe soft spot for medium bombers.

I love both the A26 Invader and the B26 Marauder aircraft. So, I am torn between them.

I looked through some of my old books to check them out, and felt a tinge of sadness to see a picture taken of an A26 just after it collected an AA shell. With most of one wing missing and bomb bay doors open, it's starting to roll. Then I saw a pic of a B26 which also caught AA. Most of the port wing is missing and you can see the starboard airleron up as far as it will go to try and compensate, but I fear that plane was doomed also.

river
 
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