Warbird Information Exchange

We finally spent part of today at the Museum and Pat gave Ellen and I the quick tour of the airplane. It is everything they've explained and more. Totally stock EVERYTHING inside and out. Radios, instrumentation, placarding, and on and on...... There are some typical spots that need a bit of attention on the airframe, but far less than one might expect. The fuselage is armored up enough to remind you of a twin-engine Sturmovik.

Scott

This aircraft is definitely rare in the sense that it is so stock. How in depth is the restoration going to be? Original Radios, armament, etc. back to stock? Or a nice flyer for the show circuit? I'd love to see it done back to stock! Looks like ya'll are off to a good start!

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Taylor Stevenson

Northslope eh, never made it up there although I did go spend 2 weeks in Dutch Harbor during the haul in of workers during crab season for ac support. We would send the occasional charter up to Deadhorse, a mech was only sent up if one of the ac had trouble. I would have preffered to stay up there but circumstances and the desire to work warbirds full time brought us back down. Look forward to seeing the progress pics on the Invader.

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CraigQ

Hi,
I'm new to this board, someone else just sent me the link. I will be watching this restoration carefully since the A/B-26K is on top of my favorites list. I deployed with the unit that took the first 8 Invaders into Thailand in June 1966. Spent my time there primarily working on the guns, but eventually the entire armament system, external and internal. This is definitely a rare bird. I'm glad someone stepped up to the plate and bought it. While I did not work on this particular bird, I have been keeping track of it for the past several years. Hopefully I will get to see it again one day in the near future. The only two survivors of the original 8 deployed to Thailand are #666, at Hurlburt Field, and 676, at the AF Museum. 671 was at Florence, but most of it was scrapped in 99. I have some pieces of that one in my basement.
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Welcome to WIX Randy! We're glad that you're here. While I am not the lead guy on the project, I am one of the helpers who also happens to try to keep this thread and our B-17 Chuckie Thread in the RetroAviation Maintenance Hangar Forum updated. It's always great to hear from someone with first hand experience on one of these rare birds. If you're ever in the Fort Worth area come on by the Vintage Flying Museum and check out '679, we'll give you (or you can give us) the grand tour!

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Bill Gorin
Vintage Flying Museum
http://www.vintageflyingmuseum.org
https://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=57513906106

Here's a video that one of our crew members, Hawkeye, shot of the engine run on Saturday.

http://www.vimeo.com/6462834

Man those R2800's sound great!

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Bill Gorin
Vintage Flying Museum
http://www.vintageflyingmuseum.org
https://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=57513906106

Cool! Welcome to the WIX, Randy!! ..and thank you for your service! Yep it is exciting knowing a real K will be flying again!
I feel your pain, I was pretty pissed when the AF scrapped 671 back then. No respect for a "blooded" veteran bird.

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

hey, thanks for that video of the engine run-up. Sure brings back memories. We had one bird come back one night that had taken a hit in one of those paddle blade props toward the end. The round punched a hole right through the prop. Fortunately, it didn't shear off in fight. The pilot wasn't even aware of it until he shut it down in the de-arm area.
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Randy, Welcome Home!!!

I got a e-mail to my dad. A good friend of his was a Mech in Thailand on the B-26. I can remember his 1st name was Charlie, but cant remember his last. I remember going to his house and seeing a pic of the B-26 at Hurlburt was one of his girls. We were also friends with a pilot named Jaybo Hinub. So you may know these guys. If you got any pics, I would love to see em!!!

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

......... A good friend of his was a Mech in Thailand on the B-26. I can remember his 1st name was Charlie

======I remember some of the mechanics, can't say for sure about a Charlie, but probably would remember a face. I have a ton of pics of A-26's but few of our first deployment. They took a dim view of cameras on the flight line then. I managed to get a few, others I've gotten from other sources.
I'll post some when I can figure out how. I also have a pic of 679 before she was given the camo job. It's an interesting pic I took at Hurlburt, while we were down there TDY from England AFB prior to deployment to NKP.
Later,
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Don't know if I did this right. If it works, there should be a picture below of 679
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

fixed it for ya

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

what year was that taken? Is that how it came from On Mark?

Thanks for fixin' the picture. I'm just not as up to things as I should be on some of this stuff.
Ok, now for the quiz on the above picture.
Background: I took the picture at Hurllburt Field, Fla. in spring of 66. We went down there for about a week TDY to put on a fire power demo. The rumor mill had it that some of the "higher ups" in the AF weren't convinced what could be done with these birds, so we went down to prove it to them. Anyway, we returned to England AFB to await further orders. We eventually deployed June 6, 1966 for NKP. As far as I know from the records, 679 never went to SEA, but was used in the US for training.
All of the On Mark versions came in the color scheme shown in this pic. Something close to John Deere Green on top, with a light gray underside. Prior to deployment, the first eight that went were given the camo and flat black underside job, because of the night missions.
Some of you may have heard of Joe Kittinger. He still holds the record for the longest delayed drop with a parachute, from 102,800 ft. He was the pilot for 679 the evening I took this pic. There is something definitely wrong with the aircraft in the picture. See if you can figure it out, then I'll tell you, as Paul Harvey used to say, "the rest of the story!"
As an aside, the place we used for the uploading and downloading of munitions was called the "Doolittle Runway." They said it was the place where Jimmy Doolittle trained the Tokyo Raiders. Didn't mean much to me at the time, being all of 19.
Randy

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Well that certainly explains why we're finding all that dull white paint underneath the black. Yesterday I found a decal on the right oil cooler door under the black and on top of a dull white while steam cleaning. Didn't know that On Mark delivered any B-26's in that scheme other than the prototype. Nice pic, thanks for sharing! We'll definitely have to find a way to reunite Joe Kittinger with his old mount.... Maybe Oshkosh 2011!!