Trip to the National Museum of the US Air Force

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The descendant of the A-20 Havoc the A-26 was first used during WWII as an attack bomber. After the war with the retirement of the B-26 Marauder, the A-26 was re-designated B-26 to the confusion of many. It served in Korea (as this aircraft is painted to represent) and later in the Vietnam war.

 
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The B-26K was an A-26B Modified by On Mark Engineering. It had a rebuilt fuselage and tail, strengthened wings, improved engines, reversible propellers and wing-tip fuel tanks and was used in the Veitman War for ground-attack missions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. To add even more to the Invader number confusion the B-26K was later re-designated as the A-26A.

 
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nice pics Glenn
watched Hellfighters yesterday and there's a bit in it of a Globemaster landing and opening the clamshell front doors !
One of my favorite movies! I was going to mention that scene in the post but I didn't think anyone would know what I was talking about. Should have known better. Hard to forget those big doors opening up and John Wayne standing there with that big grin on his face.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx7T1jYymCI
 
Consolidated designed the B-36 during World War II as an intercontinental bomber to bomb Europe from the U.S. east coast, but it did not fly until mid 1946 . By 1948 when the Strategic Air Command received its first operational B-36 The world had changed and it was now an intercontinental nuclear bomber capable of delivering atomic weapons across the north pole.
The B-36 was powered by 6 rearward facing 28 cylinder 3,500hp P&W R-4360 engines and 4 GE J47 axial-flow jet engines. It cursed at 230 mph and had a max speed of 435 mph. It had a loaded weight of 410,000 pounds, could carry a 86,000 pound bomb load, and had a range of 10,000 miles.
Everything about the B-36 was HUGE!

That big wheel you see in some of the photos is from the B-36 prototype. It originally had single wheel main gear legs instead of 4 wheel, but there were only a couple of air bases in existence with concrete thick enough to stand up to the concentrated pressure of that single wheel.

 
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The B-45 was an early jet bomber designed during WWII. It first flew in the late 19402 and served until the late 1950s

 
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The B-57 was a license built English Electric Canberra built to replace the Douglas A-26 Invader. It first flew in 1953, was used during the Vietnam War, and the last one was retired in 1983.

 
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The RB-57D was a strategic reconnaissance version of the B-57that could fly high enough to avoid interception. In 1956 three RB-57Ds overflew the city of Vladivostok in the Soviet Union in broad daylight.

 
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