A QUARTER OF A CENTURY IN THE RANKS

The first feedback about the car, entered the firm, gave its developers the optimism In the reports there was a high speed, the ability to strike small targets from low altitudes, exceptional structural strength and quite powerful weapons, however, they pointed to a small range and lack of bomb load.

 

Immediately after receiving the first reviews of the Boston firm Douglas has begun to develop a new aircraft design which were considered front-line experience acquired Designing the new aircraft was headed by Edward Heinemann and Robert Donovan Work was carried out on three variants of the car of the XA-26-DE — attack-bomber with a crew of three; the XA-26A-DE — seat night fighter with nose radar and four 20mm cannons in the ventral gondola and the XA-26B-DE — triple-bomber attack with a powerful 75-mm gun in the bow.

 

 

 

 

After manufacturing the first prototype of the firm Douglas received an order to build 500 planes the Japanese Attack on pearl Harbor and the US entry into the war accelerated the work on the car, the First prototype of a ground-attack aircraft of the XA-26-DE raised in the air July 10, 1942, test pilot of the firm Ben Howard Flight was a success, the only serious defect is identified during testing, turned out to be overheating of the engine cylinders To improve cooling was enough to change the shape of the hood and remove the fairings with bushings screws In the future, the engines of the A-26 does not overheat in any climate.

 

Was gradually eliminated and other minor defects during testing of the first prototypes, it became clear that all efforts need to focus on debugging options XA-26-DE and XA-26B-DE because the night fighter was assigned to the Black Widow P-61 company Nortrop submitted for testing before HA-26A.

 

The changes were made and the variant HA-26V. Instead of heavy and bulky 75-mm gun, which is the best fit in the spacious contours of the b-25 series G, in the bow HA-26V placed six (eight) 12.7-mm machine guns Browning M2, They were standard armament for the A-26B, although the experiments with the installation of guns of various caliber have continued on.

 

In the series launched two versions of the aircraft A-26C and 26B, the First was considered a triple bomber with glazed nose cabin of the Navigator. The second attack the bomber with a whole battery of heavy machine guns in the nose compartment of weapons. Throughout the rest of the machine is almost no different. The new aircraft received the name of the Invader (eng. – invader). With this name he went on his 25-year-old fighting way.

 

 

Bomber A-26C Invader

 

 

A-26 Invader after the next flight

 

Production of the aircraft began at two factories. Modification of the A-26B was produced in long beach (California), and a-26S in Tulsa (pieces OK). All aircraft off the Assembly line in long beach, had an index of DL, and cars from Oklahoma — DT. Before the war the firm produced 2453 Douglas aircraft Invader of all modifications.

 

In the summer of 1944 the A-26 (three with the bow guns and one with a glazed cabin mate) transferred to the 13th bomb squadron 3rd bomber group stationed in New Guinea Before the personnel of the squadron flew the A-20 Boston and the pilots had the opportunity to compare them with new aircraft.

 

The opinions of pilots about the A-26 was divided. One didn’t like the poor visibility from the cockpit to the sides and lack of power weapons (on the machines of the first series lacked the wing guns and not provided for the under-wing containers with machine guns). Others were surprised by the high speed and maneuverability of the aircraft.

 

From Europe came a more unambiguous assessment A-26 Invader. The first eighteen A-26B received in 553 th bomb squadron 386 bomb group based in great Dunnoo (UK). From 6 to 19 September there was held a familiarization flights for new pilots for the bombers. Crews machine is definitely like, and they are happy to have raised it in the air in October, the new aircraft were transferred 416-I bomber group, which previously flew the A-20. And November 17th, 1944 the A-26 was my first combat sortie in conjunction with A-20 Boston.

 

Although the A-26 had not so many external differences from its predecessor, it nevertheless was a machine of a new generation. Having a greater bomb load than the A-20 and b-26, Invader flew faster and had a completely new, more effective weapon system. Worst compared to A-20 overview from the cockpit to the sides does not distort the overall positive impression of the new aircraft.

 

Europe was the main theater of war for the A-26. Six months in Europe, the new machine made more than 11,000 sorties and dropped on the enemy about 18,000 tons of bombs in addition to attacks on targets in the German rear, the plane, confirming his second profession — attack, bombed a tank column on the March, destroyed railway tracks, disrupting the delivery of material resources to the front.

 

A large part of the bridges destroyed in the zone of action of the German troops, was on account of A-26 Invader. With velocity is comparable with the speed of the German fighters and having strong built-in equipment, A-26 could carry with them equal air battle. Powerful engines and good mechanization of the wing made it extremely maneuverable. When meeting with enemy fighters And a-26 in the hands of an experienced pilot, showed almost fantastic results on 19 February 1945 major: ell Dierks, piloting an A-26, shot down jet fighter Me-262.

 

During the stay at the front of the loss of A-26 Invader was only 87 cars, and most of them were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery Therefore, it can be argued that at the end of the war the Invader was the most advanced bomber in its class.

 

The first modification of the Invader, put on the conveyor, was attack bomber A-26B. In a serial machine eliminated the main defects identified during flight tests During the serial production of aircraft armament was repeatedly increased. First under each wing were suspended for two containers with two guns each (ammo 500 rounds per gun) Later, in order to increase accuracy, from the hanging containers refused and the guns were built directly into the wing — three in each console. Thus, these machines could be armed with 14 — 16 machine guns.

 

However, small batches produced aircraft with different variants of weapons in the bow: two 12.7 mm machine guns and one 75-mm cannon, four machine guns and one 37-mm gun, two machine guns and one 37-mm gun, one 75 mm and one 37 mm cannon, rarely met modification of A-26 with two 37-mm guns.

 

 

 

 

Defensive armament was two remotely controlled turrets, each of which housed two 12.7-mm machine gun with ammunition, 500 rounds per gun.

 

The fire control system borrowed from the heavy bomber b-29. It included on-Board ballistic computer and aiming reticle for tracking Shooting with both turrets had one shooter, placed in the fuselage just behind the bomb Bay.

 

Bomb Bay the machine had a capacity of 1582 kg of bombs of various caliber and 791 kg of bombs were hanged on four underwing bomb racks. The aircraft later series provided for the possibility of a suspension of ten unguided rockets HVAR (five under each polacrilin).

 

Originally the A-26 was installed on the engines of Pratt & Witney R-2800-27 or similar R-2800-71 with a capacity of 2000 l S. After the release of the first Invader 700 aircraft were equipped with engine R-2800-79 with a capacity of 2370 BHP

 

Serial A-26B, in contrast to the prototype, HA-26B, the cross section of the oil cooler air intake was enlarged, and the oil cooler is recessed deeper into the wing, which almost broke his profile In HA-26B fuel capacity amounted to 3785 liters. The A-26B capacity increased by installing additional tanks in the fuselage 2271 liter, and further added the tanks are still on 1135,5 liter of gasoline in addition, all the machines provided for the installation of fuel tank 473 liters in the bomb Bay.

 

Before the war plant in long beach has released the 1150 A-five 26B and A-26C, off the Assembly line in Tulsa has gone by this time 205 A-26B was released in 1355 AND-26V.

 

Triple bomber Invader A-26C — this was the second production version of the aircraft the Basis of his design was the prototype of the HA-26.

 

In the nose of the bomber placed the Navigator, a closed transparent fairing from a solid sheet of plexiglass. In the Navigator cockpit set sight firm Sperry sight or H2S from a b-29 bomber that allows you to carry out the bombing in the absence of visibility of the target at the time these sights were considered the most perfect Seat of the Navigator was to the right of the pilot, but before the bombing the Navigator passed in the bow compartment and carried out aiming.

 

Weapons A-26C almost the same as in modification A-26B, with the exception of the bow guns, which the A-26C was absent — instead of them on the starboard side equipped with two 12.7-mm machine gun. At the plant in Tulsa was built in 1086 Invader A-26C.

 

On the basis of A-26B and A-26C were produced special versions of the aircraft. Mass-produced scout FB-26C, which was dismantled defensive missile installation, the lower installation was a radar antenna, and the bomb Bay housed the photographic equipment, the composition of which has varied depending on the task. After the war, all remaining in the ranks of the scouts received a new designation RB-26C, and with him they were still two wars — in Korea and Vietnam.

 

In late 1945, the tested modification of the XA-26D with new more powerful engines R-2800-83 — they allowed to increase the maximum speed of the aircraft at 129 km/h. Firm Douglas received an order for 750 A-26D, but the end of hostilities, the contract was cancelled the same fate befell the order of 1250 HA-26TH.

The most radical modification of the aircraft was the Invader XA-26F. In the rear fuselage instead of the cockpit arrow mounted turbojet engine company General Electric J31 turbojet engine air Intake is above the fuselage in place by the upper machine-gun turret. All defensive armament the aircraft was dismantled. Flight tests began in July 1946 and ended in 1950, In the course of the XA-26F reached a speed of 665 km/h.

 

With the aim of increasing the efficiency of air support to troops some A-26S were converted into aircraft guidance AND-26C Pathfinder (from English — “Pathfinder”). Cockpit Navigator on some of the machines extended, respectively, changing the glazing, and in the resulting free space installed special radar equipment. The nose radar, which had a large field of view, gave the crew the ability to detect surface targets at a great distance in adverse weather conditions. Several A-26C Fathfinder was part of the 3rd bomb group that fought in Korea from the first to the last day of the war.

 

In the development there were two modifications: A-26G and A-26Н, but they never came out of the stage of the project on 28 June 1950 in 13 hours and 30 minutes four North Korean Yak-9 attacked the airfield of Suwon. The result was a destroyed bomber b-26 — he was the first Invader aircraft lost in the course of the war in Korea.

 

By this time in the Pacific theater of operations was only one 3rd bomber group (3BG) United States air force armed with bombers Invader it was Based at Iwakuni airfield in the southern part of the Japanese Islands Originally, it consisted of only two squadrons of the 8th (8BS) and 13th (13BS).

 

The first sortie of aircraft these parts were appointed on 27 June 1950. It was assumed that the b-26 strike the enemy in conjunction with heavy bombers b-29 But the weather over the sea did not allow the aircraft to rise into the air, and the flight was postponed a day later, the weather improved, and early on the morning of 18 aircraft, 26 of the 13BS took to the air. Gathered over the sea, they headed for Pyongyang is the target of the attack was the airfield, which was based on North Korean fighters During the approach to the airfield the bombers were fired on by antiaircraft batteries, but their fire was not highly accurate.

 

In-26 brought down on the Parking lot of the Yak-9 and airfield buildings a hail of high-explosive bombs. Several fighters have tried to fly into the air to repel the attack, but one immediately came under a barrage of machine-gun fire To dive-26 and crashed to the ground. The pilot of the second, seeing his friend’s death, disappeared in the clouds After the bombing, aerial reconnaissance established that the earth is destroyed 25 aircraft, blow up the fuel depot and airfield buildings. The debut of the b-26 in Korea was successfully held.

 

 

After a few seconds the wheels of And-26 will touch the runway

 

Conquered by the Americans in the early days of the Korean war air superiority enabled the Invader bombers to fly missions at any time convenient for them, not really fearing encounters with enemy fighters, However, the official us reports on the losses of the North Korean aviation was far from the truth, the North Korean fighters sometimes acted promptly and skillfully.

 

July 15, 1950 flying the bombers b-26 was attacked by two Yak-9 is One of the b-26 was seriously damaged and barely made it to the airfield three days later, the airfield lucky “Jacob” was discovered and its destruction sent a group of fighter jets F-80 Shooting Star However, their small firepower is not allowed to completely destroy the airfield, and July 20, on it appeared a few b-26 Invader, daversa the case runway and over a dozen fighters have been destroyed.

 

In the critical days of the war the main task of bombers Invader was considered a direct support for the retreating troops meanwhile two squadrons of machinery for its execution was not enough To enhance 3BG in August 1950, the U.S. air force began preparing and completing 452-th reserve bomber group, which included 728, 729, 730-731 and I-I squadron of the U.S. air force reserves in October, the group flew to Japan on the air base Cute By this time, the situation at the front changed dramatically a-26 was not required to cover randomly retreating, after all, the front line approached the Chinese border.

 

First sortie 452-th group took place on 1 November 1950, Her pilots got lucky this time — Korean MiG-15, also debuted that day on the Yalu, dealt with the American fighter P-51 Mustang and, except for meetings with three Korean “yaks”, flight b-26 went more or less smoothly.

 

Attacking Yak-9 took the cover group, consisting of fighters, P-51 — they managed to shoot down two aircraft and one Yak-9 was shot down by machine-gun fire machine guns-26 in the Spring of 1951, all bomber group armed b-26, flew to Korea 3BG is based on K-8 in Kasane, a 452BG — two airfields in the district of Pusana (K-1, K-9) The basing of bombers on the Korean Peninsula helped to increase the bomb load of machinery and to reduce time of flight to the target thus greatly reduced crew workload the Introduction of radio navigation systems LORAN and SHORAN (near and far respectively) increased the accuracy of reaching the stationary target in the absence of landmarks.

 

The appearance of Soviet MiG-15 had a strong influence on the further tactics of the Invader bombers to Fly daylight became dangerous, and 26 moved mainly at night at the same time ended the era of group raids the Main combat unit became a “couple” Every night the aircraft rose into the air with a single purpose — to destroy the enemy’s communications and did not give him the opportunity to supply their troops by rail and road.

 

After June 5, 1951 b-26 began to take an active part in operation Strangle (eng — naked choke) In accordance with the plan of operation, across the Korean Peninsula was held notional lane width in one degree, crossing the narrowest part of the Peninsula, All roads passing within this bandwidth is shared between the birth of aviation b-26 Invader in the air force has at its disposal the Western section of the strip North of Pyongyang Targets detected visually locomotives and cars by the lighted lamps and lights and maintenance crews on the tracks — on fires and lights At the beginning of the bombers managed to capture the enemy by surprise, and each night brought the North Koreans broken trains and burning motorcade Soon, however, adjacent to the roads, the hills appeared posts of the early warning Sound of an airplane, pointed to the need to put out fires or to suspend the work In critical areas to post warnings added for ten 75-mm anti-aircraft guns of the Loss of the Americans from anti-aircraft fire has increased dramatically, and efficiency of flights has dropped but the pilots instead of blows to a pre-selected important goals began to prefer less dangerous missions on a “free hunt”.

 

At night the bombs have a large blast radius, did not require perfect accuracy drop, but the guns required more precision aiming to Rectify the situation helped the ambulance to the invention airfield specialists, priladiv on the wing-26 powerful searchlight In one of the missions the crew of b-26 Invader with a spotlight from 8BS, revealing a column of enemy troops, dropped bombs, and in the second approach turned the spotlight Blinded the enemy infantry became confused and came under machine-gun fire bomber At the same time, according to American data, killed about 300 people, Such cases, however, was the exception to the rule.

 

The greatest effect was brought tactic, called Hunter-Killer (eng — hunter-killer) the Basic meaning of the reception were Two b-26 was flying at the same height one after another and kept the distance of 4 — 6 km the First plane (Hanter), flying over the target, forced the enemy to extinguish the lights Before the advent of the second plane was about two minutes During this time the Koreans had calmed down, believing the first random or even your plane, and again lit the lights, damaskinou your location At this moment and appeared Killer and dumped their deadly cargo.

 

At night navigators of aircraft IN-26C with transparent nasal parts was, of course, easier to detect than their colleagues from b-26B to Correct deficiencies IN a-26B had already during the war, replacing the machine-gun battery on the transparent fairing After the alteration to distinguish “In” from “With” has become almost impossible.

 

 

In the daytime bombers b-26 Invader could not intensively affect traffic artery of North Koreans, and so at night they dropped bombs of deferred explosion for up to 72 hours At the end of 1951 in the Soviet air units based in Aniane (China), there was a special piece — 351-th fighter regiment of night interceptors Pilots flying piston-engined fighter La-11, which for the aircraft of his generation had a good flight performance, and powerful cannon armament Lack on Board the aircraft search radar complicated the search for the purposes of and the fighters were directed by radio with ground radar stations, which were only in the area of Anjuna This fact severely limited the area of operations night interceptors However, their first victim was a night bomber Invader Victory was chalked Lieutenant Barrows.

 

During the war there were cases when In-26 also had to act as night interceptors So the night of 24 June 1951-26 from 8 squadron 3BG flying over its territory, found right in front of a North Korean light bomber Po-2, which, in all probability, was returning from the bombing of the U.S. airbase K-6 (Suwon) the week before In 2 inflicted heavy losses on the U.S. air force, destroying about ten of F-86 Pilot IN Suwon-26V, without waiting while “heavenly slug” dissolve in the darkness, fired a volley from all guns, which literally blew In 2 pieces.

 

In 1951, at the front there are several aircraft b-26 Pathfinder with radar, which could detect small moving targets — in particular, the locomotives and trucks They were used as leaders of the strike groups and aircraft targeting operation of the radar in the flight did the Navigator to Find the target, he gave commands to the pilot of the plane, and if the Pathfinder acted as a leader, on the radio suggests the purpose of the strike group.

 

May 10, 1952 452-I bomber group was withdrawn from the U.S. air force reserve, and enlisted in combat strength as 17BG Respectively, were re-designated and included in her squadron 728-I — 34BS, 729-I — 37BS, 730-I — 95BS and 731-I — 30BS To strengthen the third bomber group in its structure transferred 30BS Last sortie In the a-26 made on July 27, 1953.

 

In addition to the modification of bomber b-26 Invader, fought in Korea photo-reconnaissance variants of the aircraft RB-26C and aircraft weather reconnaissance WB-26 Last patrolled the sea of Japan, ensuring the safety of aviation UN.

 

Scouts RB-26C were part of the 162 squadron tactical intelligence, fought in Korea from August 1950 Aircraft this part played a big role in getting the final results of air strikes they proved the failure of operation Strangle On the images obtained by the crews of the RB-26 was clearly visible, as the destroyed roads, circling the funnel, moving military equipment and trucks with ammunition.

 

During the war in Korea flew the b-26 completed 53 000 sorties, of which 42 400 — night as a result they were destroyed 39 000 vehicles, 406 locomotives and 4000 wagons.

 

In the late 1950-ies, the already rather tired and the past few overhauls, aircraft were used as target towing aircraft was shot all the weapons and the bomb Bay was installed two winch, which is controlled by the operator from the cabin arrow Modification was in the air force symbol, TV-26 and in the aviation Navy — JD-1 In 1962 after pereobrazhennya aircraft equipment the aircraft received a single designation — UB-26J.

 

With the advent armed with guided missiles towed targets began to go into the past, giving place to the training targets controlled by radio as carrier and aircraft management again chose the A-26 On the wings of the machine has secured two special pylons for the suspension and start the jet target part of the equipment added to TV control system Accordingly changed the designation before 1962, the air force plane was called DB-26 and in the Navy — JD-1J Aircraft of these modifications served until 1970.

 

The fate of the aircraft Invader similar to the fate experienced soldier, which is every time, regardless of his age, if necessary, drafted into the army After the Second world war it seemed that the days of A-26 are numbered and hundreds of these aircraft will become the next victim of corrosion on the bases of storage, but the war began in Korea and they turned out to be indispensable had to Commission all those that were still able to fly.

 

After Korea on the plane again forgotten and remembered only at the beginning of the Vietnam war By this time in the ranks was about 200 planes, which in all past time, never upgraded, Not changed even the equipment was believed that the planes are about to be decommissioned, the air force But life decided differently From Vietnam began to receive positive feedbacks on the Invader bomber, which at that time returned to its former designation A-26, and the machine was again called to duty.

 

 

In 1962, there were several cases of destruction of planes in the air that was forced to overhaul other cars, but it did not improve the situation Firm mark Engineering company has received an order for a deep modification of the aircraft. 28 January 1963 a prototype of a modified Invader bomber under the designation YB-26K made its first flight Positive test results gave the company the opportunity to get 13-million order for alteration of 40 cars.

 

The original designation of the modified aircraft IN-26К later changed to A-26A Major improvements have touched the wing and powerplant. Wing for him, designed a completely new, and consoles placed additional fuel tanks, holding 2362,5 liters of gasoline, the aircraft set new engines of firm Pratt & Witney R2800-103W with a capacity of 2500 liters, with Increased bomb load On eight under-wing pylons have the opportunity to hang up to 3176 kg of different weapons.

 

The most loaded parts of the airframe has undergone a complete replacement of the length of the aircraft increased External suspension worsened directional stability of the machine that could affect the accuracy of the use of weapons to compensate For this the area of the rudder and the height of the keel is increased. In-26К was used extensively in Vietnam from 1966 to 1970.