Confused, Misread, or Just Plain Stupid

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Aaron Brooks Wolters

Aaron Brooks Wolters

Brigadier General
16,552
2,426
Jul 28, 2007
Abingdon, VA.
I know I have been gone for quit some time, and I apologize for this. But I have a question that I cannot find the answer to. Years ago, I was reading about the Douglas Invader, I cannot find or remember the title of the book I was reading or I would not be asking the seemingly silly question.
When the Invader was first designed and brought into production, was it not labeled as B-26 like the Mauder, fore when I was reading said article, I was thinking, why would they name two planes with the same designation? I was either dreaming, or lost what little mind I have. Please clear this up for me.
 
Martin built the B-26 Marauder as a medium bomber. This aircraft was retired from service shortly after the end of WW2 and the aircraft scrapped. Very few survived in civilian colours.

When Douglas designed a replacement for the attack aircraft, the A-20 Havoc/ Boston, it became the A-26 Invader. In June 1948 the USAF decided that the A for Attack designation was not required and so the A-26 was redesignated the B-26. Hence the B-26 designation was attached to a second type.

Hope this helps you understand the history.
 
At the end of WW2 the USAAF decided the A-26 could replace the B-25, B-26, and the A-20. The A-26 could serve as a medium or low altitude level bomber as well as a heavily armed strafer. A-26's began to replace both the A-20 and the B-26 in the ETO starting in the latter half of 1944. I recall reading that at least one B-26 unit kept one of their B-26's when they got the A-26, since the B-26 made a much better transport than the A-26. The USAAF and then USAF retained the B-25 as a trainer and transport into the late 1950's with a few apparently even serving into the mid-60's with Air Guard units, but the B-26 and A-20 were gone quite quickly after the war. Some A-20's in the ETO were disposed of by running them off cliffs into the Atlantic. The B-25 was easy and safe to fly and some even were used as msoquito sprayers.
 
EwenS said:
Martin built the B-26 Marauder as a medium bomber. This aircraft was retired from service shortly after the end of WW2 and the aircraft scrapped. Very few survived in civilian colours.

When Douglas designed a replacement for the attack aircraft, the A-20 Havoc/ Boston, it became the A-26 Invader. In June 1948 the USAF decided that the A for Attack designation was not required and so the A-26 was redesignated the B-26. Hence the B-26 designation was attached to a second type.

Hope this helps you understand the history.
Click to expand...
I know of all the latter Invader info. What I am referring to is it's Pre-production and and earlier production.
 
Douglas intended for the A-26 to replace the A-20.
The XA-26 was pretty good right out of the box, but had cooling issues and a weak nose gear. The fix for the cooling issues involved deleting the prop spinners and changes to the cowling, the nose gear assembly was redesigned.

If I remember right, the Invader went straight from XA-26 to production as either an A-26B (ground attack version) or A-26C (bomber version), there was no A-26A version.

Great to see ya' back around these parts, too!
 
There was a good book on Douglas Aircraft, Aaron, that you might be thinking of.

It came out in the 80's and was authored by Rene Francillon. The title was something like "Douglas Aircraft from the 1920's".

I'll dig around and see if I can find the exact title, but it was really informative on their projects and production types.
 
Usually these designation changes occur only when two 'conflicting' types have largely passed out of the inventory: this was the case with the Marauder and only now do we conflate the two. In-period there was no confusion since B-26 and A-26 operated concurrently as different designations. By the time that the Invader became 'B-26' there were no Marauders left in the USAF inventory.

Other examples are Northrop F-15 Reporter and McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle/Lockheed F-5 Lightning and Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter (there are others). Again, no concurrent usage so confusion only at some distance from the fact.
 
Wasn't the B-26K designation changed to A-26A in the late-1960s?

I may be misremembering, but it seems like I remember reading that in something official.
 
Last edited:
List of reported A-26 prototypes
XA-26 41-19504, first flight 10 July 1942, accepted 21 February 1944
XA-26A 41-19505, accepted 27 September 1943
XA-26B 41-19588, accepted 30 June 1943
XA-26D 44-34100, factory completed, accepted and delivered 31 January 1945 as an A-26B then converted, re-delivered 1 November 1945.
XA-26D 41-39543, factory completed, accepted and delivered 20 January 1945 as an A-26B then converted, re-delivered 6 November 1945.
XA-26E 44-35563, A-26C factory completed 23 April 1945, no evidence it ever flew.
XA-26F 44-34586, factory completed 17 October 1945, accepted and delivered 14 December 1945

A-26B production began at Long Beach in September 1943 and at Tulsa in January 1944.
Long beach built 5 A-26C May and July 1944, A-26C production at Tulsa began in September 1944.

Long beach ceased production in August 1945 apart from 44-34586 and 44-34776, Tulsa ceased production in July 1945.

The A-26B 44-34776 factory completed 14 August 1945, accepted and delivered as A-26B 15 March 1946, often reported as another XA-26D prototype. Note: 44-34776 was to be scrapped but was exchanged for 44-35567 which was accepted as an A-26C 28 April, delivered 11 May, to modification centre 8 August, departed 13 September 1945, Assignment/Project number DOM792.

In the 1960's there were conversions to B-26K, then they became A-26A.
 
ThomasP said:
Wasn't the B-26K designation changed to A-26A in the late-1960s?

I may be misremembering, but it seems like I remember reading that in something official.
Click to expand...
It was done in 1962, and included other types being re-designated (for example FJ-3 Fury to F-1C; SA-16 Albatross to HU-16 etc)
 
Sabrejet said:
ThomasP said:
Wasn't the B-26K designation changed to A-26A in the late-1960s?

I may be misremembering, but it seems like I remember reading that in something official.
Click to expand...


It was done in 1962, and included other types being re-designated (for example FJ-3 Fury to F-1C; SA-16 Albatross to HU-16 etc)
Click to expand...

In the spring of 1966, it was decided to deploy B-26Ks to Southeast Asia in an attempt to stem the flow of war material down the Ho Chi Minh trail from North Vietnam via Laos. Since northeastern Thailand was much closer to the intended area of operations in southern Laos, the US Government obtained permission for the Invaders to be stationed there rather than in South Vietnam. However, during the mid-1960s, Thailand did not permit the basing of bombers on its territory, and so in May 1966 the aircraft were reassigned the old attack designation of A-26A, thus bringing the Invader full-circle.


The sections of the following website on operations in Cuba, The Congo, Laos, and Vietnam are interesting:

 
Northeast Thailand, in other words NKP, Nakhon Phanom. Just a few miles from the Mekong river, the border between Thailand and Laos.
I got there in 67, and the A-26s were there , painted black.

I was outdoors most of the time, in the bomb dump, or flight apron, very seldom seen a A-26 flying during the day , unless it was a maintenance check flight. They were night operations only.
 
GrauGeist said:
The XA-26 was pretty good right out of the box, but had cooling issues and a weak nose gear.
Click to expand...
When the early A-26B with the flat canopy got to the CBI, the response was "Take these things back! We want more B-25's!" The low canopy combined with the big engines close by gave the A-26 poor visibility. And in Burma they were not doing medium altitude level bombing but single ship missions on armed reconnissance against targets of opportunity or based on what the ground troops wanted. The B-25 had terrific visibility from the cockpit and the canopy on the A-26 was revised to improve the view.

GrauGeist said:
there was no A-26A version.
Click to expand...
A-26A was to be a night fighter, which sounds odd until you realize that was an important role for the A-20/P-70.

47BG-A-26-1.jpg
47BG-A-26.jpg
 
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