Warbird Information Exchange

Hi,

I have posted this before on the British forums but no one could really confirm one way or another. We are restoring the cockpit of an A-26 Invader for display here in the UK. This particular airframe was used in Vietnam (B-26).

Ok onto the mystery, this section has a lot of armor plate fitted all round the cockpit area, some is over regular skins but some is just armor with no skins underneath.

Did any wartime A-26 Invaders have this armor fitted to them, we are wanting to represent its wartime history (having flown from the UK during 1944) so do we refit the armor or not? can anyone confirm. Would this be detailed in the Invader parts catalogue? if so does anyone have the relevant pages?

I have tried looking at wartime photographs and it appears they may well have had the armor plate but I really need to be sure before making any harsh decisions.

Thanks in advance.

I've worked on 4 different Invaders, they all had the armor & it's shown in all the original manuals... at least the ones I had.
hth.

The A-26 armor was an original feature of all A-26s. It is made of a hardened Duralumin product that was designed to stop a .50 cal bullet at 500 yds, or something like that. It works. It surrounded the cockpit, it ran along the sides to protect the control cables and it covered the bottom of the fuel tanks between the fuselage and nacelles. There are also armored access doors on the bottom of each nacelle.

Lovely job! I'm happy with that, I have also now seen a wartime drawing showing the armour.

Thanks to those who helped clear this up.

RickH wrote: It is made of a hardened Duralumin product that was designed to stop a .50 cal bullet at 500 yds, or something like that.

At 500 yards, 1inch of steel doesn't even slow down a .50 AP round...

ZRX, I don't remember the exact yardage. This stuff is tuff, it deflected the prop blade on the CF A-26 when it hit the side of the aircraft. This was the #1 prop that took out the right windscreen after it pulled the gear case out of the # 1 engine and cartwheeled over the cockpit. The armor plate deflected the blade so that it didn't cut through the thin aluminum under skin. It bent one corner, but didn't come close to penetrating.

The exact information about what projectile it is supposed to stop is in the pilot's manual under aircraft description. My copy is at the hangar.

RickH wrote:The exact information about what projectile it is supposed to stop is in the pilot's manual under aircraft description. My copy is at the hangar.

Mine is buried in the garage someplace...

Some of armor panels are removalable on sides of cockpit. Some is built into the frame, around back of cockpit from above wing to wing behind cockpit. There was also some under floor as well, inside nose wheel well, forward of instrument panel in nose section.

We have an A-26 which was converted to VIP transport, and has had most armor removed long time ago to save weight.

Kurt

Hi Dan,
I found these following pages in a couple of World War II vintage A-26 flight manuals.I checked my Viet Nam era A-26A flight manual,but I couldn't find anything in it concerning armor plate.I don't know why these pages post in such a large format.Something must have changed at Photobucket.The pages do post smaller when they have been rotated.Go figure...I hope that this will be of some use.I tried posting the rotated pages as well,but something seems to be preventing them from showing up here.Actually,some odd things are happening with multiple pages appearing and disappearing.Sorry about whatever might happen here.

wow, lots of good information there

Here are some pictures of the B-26K model here at the Vintage Flying Museum after the paint was stripped. You can easily see the original armor plating sorry for the poor quality, all I had that day was my Crackberry.










Before being stripped

Hi, I just wanted to thank all those that answered my original question. Since getting the deffinative answers we have been able to move forward with the restoration.

Thanks again and some cracking pics!

If anyone can help with any cockpit fitting to fit out the otherwise gutted interior I would be very grateful.