The Amazing Bomber That Pilots Initially Despised: Douglas A-26 Invader

hey everyone how's it going today we're going to be talking about a fantastic plane a plane that served in at least three major Wars and many smaller ones and conflicts a plane that could do a multitude of things and a plane that was outright rejected by the first Pilots to receive them who would plainly state after receiving and testing them quote we do not want the plane under any circumstances as a replacement for anything incredibly harsh words for a plane that was not only viewed initially in testing and design as being fantastic but fantastic by those who would later fly it in a multitude of conflicts that's going to be a key thing to think about here what was up with this plane that made those Pilots hate it but made everybody else love it this is probably one of the longest lasting planes built and flown and that served in World War II 2 this is the Douglas a26 Invader its story starts in late 1940 before America would join the war with Douglas aircraft responding to a call from the aircore for a new attack aircraft design that could do basically anything they wanted it to from light bombing to medium bombing to ground attacking and anything in between it was essentially to be a high performance multi role attacker lined up for this role sort of already was another aircraft from Douglas the a20 Havoc first flown under this designation in January 1939 and officially introduced in January 1941 the a20 would be a quiet staple to Allied Forces across the globe during the war with over 7,000 made and flying in Britain Russia Australia Australia the Pacific Europe and the Mediterranean but in late 1940 before the a20 could be adopted by America and have a pretty solid career Douglas was already looking at a potential replacement kind of important to note as well is that a technical predecessor but really just about the same thing to the a20 called the db7 had been flown a year earlier than the a20 was and was present in Europe in very small numbers before Germany would attack France and Britain in these early excursions with the a20 predecessor it was noted that the defensive Armament was a bit lacking ammo was low and that the speed would definitely need to be increased in the future with just a single rear-facing defensive gun at least on that angle they weren't wrong and this is something that would be remedied on the a20 proper but while improving improvements were made to the early a20s work on its replacement would begin key to improving performance would be an upgrade in the engine and luckily for Douglas aircraft the perfect engine had flown for the first time just a few months prior in May 1940 the pratton Whitney r2800 double wasp had taken to the air and that engine would see a total production run over 100,000 over the course of its career and it would be used on fantastic planes like the f6f Hellcat p47 Thunderbolt and F4U Corsair a fantastic high power engine was now right for the plucking this new engine would immediately increase the total horsepower of whatever the new design would be by at least 25% the a20 would use the right r2600 and that had around 1,600 horsepower the r2800 would have at least 2,000 horsepower and because Douglas was already working on the a20 they wouldn't exactly have to brainstorm terribly much for a new design and generally speaking the silhouette of their new design would largely mimic what the a20 looked like just scaled up a bit measuring in at 15 M long 21 M wide and 5.64 M tall the new design basically just looked like a slightly larger a20 different from the a20 though would be a few key things for one it would have a newly designed Wing that would ideally reduce drag this new Wing was a laminer flow air foil Wing where the flow of air over the wing is supposed to be far smoother thus reducing drag ideally this new Wing design would help increase performance and just reduce inherent drag that is present on aircraft for two it would have a greater defensive Armament with two twin 50 caliber remote controled turrets in the dorsal and ventral positions and for three it would have greater modability specifically in its nose section when Douglas made their initial designs they didn't just make one they actually made three with each nose plane combo having a different initial designation the first one the X8 26 would have a glass nose for improved downward vision for bombing the second one the XA 26a would have a radar in the nose intended to serve as a night Fighter the third one the XA 26b would have a quote unquote solid nose that would house guns the guns fitted in the nose would conceptually vary from several 50 caliber machine guns to a single 75 mm Cannon and anything in between in this sense the XA 26b would be like several more variants in one with larger caliber noses serving more as tank destroyers or something and the smaller calibers serving as like support attackers all three designations would be ordered for Prototype production and by July 10th 1942 the first one the XA 26 was ready to take to the air the first test flight of this plane went incredibly well with the test pilot landing and reportedly exclaiming that the plane was ready for mass production right now just as it is very high Praise of course that wouldn't actually happen as there was more testing and whatnot to be done but the flying performance of the xa26 was reportedly fantastic displaying excellent handling and maneuver durability despite weighing about 22,000 lb empty and its speed would hit somewhere around 360 M an hour at altitude its performance in the air was fantastic for a plane its size but there were still some issues that needed ironing out the landing gear was a bit weak and needed to be improved this problem would continue into the actual production versions and it was also requested that the engine cells be altered a little bit to make them easier to perform maintenance on as they were it took two people to perform routine maintenance on a single engine so they wanted this reduced to just one person per engine ultimately though after the flight testing of just the first model mind you the effective winner of the three was the XA 26b now they didn't exactly Proclaim it to be the winner but after this first flight in order for $500 models with the 75 mm Cannon was placed and there was also an initial order of 200 of the glass nose dedicated bomber model but that order was then cancelled and replaced with 200 models with 650 caliber machine guns in the nose in effect the bomber variant and night fighter variants lost to the attack model this was despite the fact that the XA 26a and XA 26b hadn't actually flown yet but I assume that they were confident after the xa26 flew and just assumed that the other models would work just as well the US military seemed to be going all in on this attack variant with it having both forward firing capabilities and also having a bomb capacity that would sit upwards of 6,000 lb however in the coming few years the US military would seem to chill on the whole 75 mm Cannon idea while work was still ongoing with the 75 mm Cannon nose the military requested that work be done on some extra guns and the old glass bomber nose to supplement the 75 mm Cannon there was to be additional gun pods under wing and under Bombay holding either 50 caliber machine guns or 37 mm cannons along with up to 8 50 caliber machine guns in the Wings Additionally the glass nose was to continue research and production with two 50 caliber guns mounted on it as well the solid nose with cannons was to then be designated the a26b and the glass noose bomber variant was the a26c the night fighter variant was kind of just left behind for now the first 500 models would be the B and pass that for every B made8 C's would be made as well after testing on a solid nose with 37 mm cannons was done it appears as though the 75 mm Cannon idea would be quietly dropped in favor of the smaller calibers the 37 mm nose and a 50 caliber solid nose would continue on and the first four production models all a26 Bs would be shipped over to the Fifth Air Force in the Pacific sometime between late 1943 and early 1944 these ones fitted with 650 caliber machine guns in the nose to be tested by pilots currently operating a20s and the B25 Mitchell here the a26 would be able to show off its impressive performance and pretty impressive total Armament of 12 plus total forward firing guns not including those gun pods and four defensive guns to to the rear at least that was probably the idea in reality when the Fifth Air Force flew the a 26s in mid 1944 they really didn't like them in fact they actually kind of hated them again going back to the beginning after the Fifth Air Force would fly their 4 a 26s in combat trials General George Kenny leader of the Fifth Air Force and the Far Eastern Air Force would message back very BL ly we do not want the a26 under any circumstances as a replacement for anything in that same message Kenny also said that the a26 they had were grounded and their engines were pickled which basically means that they were taken out of the planes and kept in oil to preserve them so as of now we have two very clear distinct opinions of the a26 a test pilot that absolutely adored it and the Fifth Air Force that absolutely hated it and preferred their old a20s and B25 what exactly happened here did something change in the meantime why was there such a difference in opinion from a technical or mechanical perspective there really wasn't anything wrong with the a26 the performance that was seen from the test pilot was still there it still had great speed handling and maneuver ability it seems like the key problem was that the perspectives of the test pilot and the Airmen of the fifth were drastically different the test pilot who offered such Praise of the plane was more experienced with racing aircraft which Above All Else prioritized speed and control most other things were secondary for a pilot using the a26 as an actual combat aircraft as a bomber or ground attacker they would need things like reliability armaments visibility and overall ease of use of the weapons the problem with the initial a26 was that the pilot Andor those using the forward Armament had very poor vision to their front sides below and above on the early cockpit design the canopy was heavily framed with smaller plexiglass window panels broken up by the frame and the cockpit sat just about flush with the fuselage while this would probably give the windows a bit more strength and the cockpit just a bit more armor the frame sections would obstruct the Pilot's View and he had basically no vision above him and with the nose jutting forward rather far and the engine cells sticking out in front pretty far as well Vision to his front and sides were obstructed as well having such limited Vision was kind of okay for a racing aircraft it wasn't that necessary All Things Considered but for a ground attacker and bomber it was horrible it's no wonder that the Fifth Air Force preferred the older a20 and B25 at least you could properly see out of them however because the a26 was in its specifications the better aircraft the US military pushed forward with it and Douglas for their part put forward an interim solution until a more Perman solution was designed to increase their Vision in the short term the Pilot's window would be altered a bit the roof over his head was just cut out and a single piece of curved plexiglass would form the window to his side and a new window above him basically the pilot got a nice new sunroof while this change did improve the Pilot's Vision a bit it still didn't fix the issue of poor vision to his front or sides to to fix this in September 1944 Douglas would have a new canopy designed and ready to test where the vision obstructing frame was just about done away with and replaced almost entirely with just plexiglass also the canopy and cockpit was raised slightly going from being flush with the fuselage to just above it this gave the pilot much better Vision all around above the engine the cells above the nose really wherever so while the initial field tests with the Fifth Air Force weren't great in September 1944 as well 18 a 26s were sent over to Europe to be used by the 9th Air Force presumably the temporary canopy fix was done to these but not the new fully glass canopy after a handful of missions and them suffering no losses e ninth would report back that they actually quite like the a26 praising its potential as a medium bomber and praising its performance overall they did also note the very poor vision from the cockpit but prais the solid vision from the glass noose model specifically so with the ninth Air Force actually liking the a26 the a26 would see much more use over in Europe in the closing stages of the war than over in the Pacific or the a20 was still the more preferred plane in Europe the a26 would display remarkable durability weather resistance and defensive combat ability in one case in late 1944 with a bomber unit flying a26 with some other bombers like the a20 because of very poor weather all individual units and planes were forced to return because of the weather all units except those using the a26 which was able to for lack a better word weather the weather this is just one example but it is apparently representative of the general reliability and stability of the a26 in another case on March 9th 1945 reportedly a group of 30 German BF 109s would attack a group of a 26s now did the a 26s have escorts I'm not actually sure but if they didn't in most cases that would be very troubling for the bombers still in this attack three a 26s would be shot down but they would also report eight kills of their own in return regardless of what their actual kill count there was losing just three planes to 30 attacking BF 109s is pretty solid in my estimation anyway when all was said and done in Europe the a26 from around October 1944 4 to May 1945 flew a combined 11,567 sorties suffering 67 losses achieving seven confirmed kills and dropping 18,000 tons of bombs during the course of the war while I couldn't find exact production numbers for those made just during the War I do think it's safe to estimate that at least 2,300 were made with a total production including any post-war production going upwards of 2,500 not all of these would be delivered or flown in combat mind you but they would be made the total production run was just a portion of what was actually ordered though in late April 1945 7,700 a26 were under contract to be made with around 1,500 of them already delivered as the European theater came to to an end and the Pacific Theater hopefully was winding down in May around 5,000 of these frames were cancelled with the War ending they wouldn't really be necessary now so the roughly 2300 made during the war would basically be just about all that were made plus with jet aircraft on the horizon how long would this piston engine light to medium bomber actually last turns out a pretty long time just a few years after not seeing much action in World War II the a26 now designated the b26 after aircraft designations were changed in 1948 it would be an incredibly prominent aircraft in the Korean War largely serving as a bomber and night bomber just three units would field the b26 but each of these units would fly thousands to tens of thousands of sorties each over the roughly three-year War over the entire course of the war 154 b-26s were lost so about 6% of the roughly 2500 planes available and in return they would destroy almost 40,000 Vehicles 400 locomotives almost 4,000 rail cars and seven planes that were still on the ground which probably isn't worth mentioning All Things Considered still the b26 was basically the bane of enemy Logistics allegedly as well the b26 would also fly the last bombing Mission during the war attacking just 24 minutes before the war ended for the next roughly two decades the b26 would effectively serve both as an export aircraft to various allies and as a covert attacker under the control of none other than the CIA how devious for the less interesting of these two the b26 would be used by the French in the first Indochina War basically a predecessor to Vietnam Portugal would also use it to try and hold on to their colonial possessions and also Colombia would use it for the far more interesting part the b26 would see action under the CIA in Indonesia Cuba the Congo LA and Vietnam before America officially enter entered the Vietnam War in Indonesia as part of America's global war against the threat of Communism in the Cold War in 1949 a war of Independence was fought against the Dutch and was won but the problem for the American government was that this new government if not outright communist was Communist leaning or sympathetic admittedly I can't say I know much about 40s and 50s Indonesia but their president did attempt to create a new political system that included communism so that was certainly enough to draw the ire of America in this time period because of the Indonesian president now the CIA organized a small group just a handful of b-26s that would support Rebels seeking to topple the government however after one of the b-26s was shot down with a CIA pilot inside in May 1958 the J was up and CIA involvement was revealed which ruined the covert support plan and led to the CIA withdrawing their support for the rebels seemingly not deterred though the CIA would commission the b26 again this time to be used in one of the most infamous US military failures ever in the Bay of Pigs invasion taking 17 unmarked b-26s and flying them near Cuba to Bases where Cuban Exiles were being trained to fight the Cuban military the b-26s would take to the air and attack Cuban air bases and support ship Landings in the Bay of Pigs with the failure of the mission some eight or nine b26 were lost and the remaining planes were flown back to Nicaragua where American forces just abandoned them leaving them to Nicaragua to do whatever they wanted with them they would keep some of the planes and return the rest to the United States then there was over in Southeast Asia where the b26 would participate in LA in the L ocean Civil War America would of course back the monarchy and they would be going up against the Communist forces back by the Soviets and North Vietnam their role here would be incredibly limited borderline non-existent actually there were plans to participate in direct attacks but these never actually came to fruition flying out of neighboring Thailand a couple b-26s flew Recon missions but after the American ambassador of Thailand learned what the CIA was doing here presumably to try and stop some kind of international issue he requested that they knock it off and they did and as for Vietnam the b26 along with the T28 Trojan and c47 Sky Train were all selected for use in operation Farmgate where the US would basically be participating in the Vietnam War before they said they were a number of each plane were flown to South Vietnam in 1961 to take part in the training of South Vietnamese Airmen and each plane would be done up in Vietnamese markings to hide American involvement these planes would be piloted by Americans but at least one Vietnamese crew member was required to be on board for any flight to provide some kind of plausible deniability that America wasn't flying the planes but rather just helping the South Vietnamese learn how to use them in this very limited role the b26 alongside the other aircraft were used for Recon and general air support roles and by the time the operation ended in 1963 four b-26s were lost the b26 would later see use in Vietnam again when America was officially in the war up until 1969 albeit in a very very limited role and lastly for the Congo America supported the central congales government in 1964 so when Rebel forces took a city and took Americans hostage 4 b-26s flown by the Cuban Exile pilots from earlier were commissioned to Aid in the destruction of the Rebel forces and the freeing of the hostages the hostages were freed later in 1964 and the 4B 26s would continue to play a role in the central government retaking control of the Congo and they would be in this conflict until around 1966 almost 1967 before the planes were then returned to America after this and their limited role in Vietnam the b26 would largely be removed from service outside of some minor exports after participation in three major Wars and many smaller ones the b26 or a26 if you prefer was finally done ultimately I do think that the a26 may be one of the more underappreciated aircraft from the World War II era probably because it had a limited role in that war and mainly served in Korea the far less popular war its relative lack of public Fanfare shouldn't detract from the fact that the a26 was actually a really really good plane fast for its size maneuverable versatile I mean other than the initial canopy issues there wasn't much of a flaw to it the Invader brought Great Value to the battlefield but more importantly it did invade something else and that is my heart all right and with that we're going to go ahead and end for today so thank you all for watching Remember to like comment and subscribe the reason why I like the a26 story is the contradiction of the test pilot and the Fifth Air Force One loved it and the other hated it just such a dichotomy of opinion that surely confused Douglas in the US military they'd be like what happened I I thought it was perfect did the first guy lie he didn't of course he just wasn't trying to actually use the plane as a military aircraft key difference there but anyway I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope you learned something so see you

Channel: IHYLS

Views: 209,714

Keywords: Douglas Aircraft, douglas a 26 invader, b 26 invader, bomber aircraft, ground attack aircraft, multirole aircraft, american aircraft, united states aircraft, ww2, world war 2, military history, aviation history, pacific war, military aircraft, airplane, us air force

Id: oheX0UMjftg

Length: 28min 11sec (1691 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2024