B-26K Counter-Invader Restoration ("Special K")

[ZRX61]

What a airshow that would be! Timed with pyro just right!?

SICK!

We do have something of a pyrotechnic professional on the crew, actually...whaddaya say, Pat???

Another airshow trick:
Find a clock with a VERY LOUD tick....place it inside one of the dummy bombs hanging on the wing....Endless amusement as people stand under the wing & you see the dawning realization on their faces that something above them is ticking....

Might not be a good idea since 9/11 tho...

Oddly enough the usual reaction is they walk over & ask if you know one of the bombs is ticking, which gives you the chance to display your best "OMG!! RUN AWAY!" face

[a26invader]

Was this youtube video posted here before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjaZ0XSEFWc

[TimAPNY]

Was this youtube video posted here before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjaZ0XSEFWc

It is the first time I've seen it. Thanks for posting the link. I look forward to seeing work progress on this aircraft.

Question: What is the drum in the bombbay for?

Tim

[David_Aiken]

Aloha Pat, Bill, and AKflier,
Stopped by today [Ground Hog Day, 1030 hours] to see the B-26K... It really looks like a good project, despite the fence which kept me away (sniff). PacProwler and Chuckie look great as did that Stinson Reliant. Nice trek, alas, just missed everyone.
Cheers,
David Aiken

Last edited by David_Aiken on Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Second Air Force]

Darn it David, I'd have liked to have met you face-to-face. Sorry we can't be there except on weekends..... Thanks for stopping in!

Scott

[David_Aiken]

Darn it David, I'd have liked to have met you face-to-face. Sorry we can't be there except on weekends..... Thanks for stopping in!

Scott

Great Scott!
It would have been fun to meet you and the gang. At one point, 37 years ago (yes, that means 1973), I was at that SAME hangar twice a week doing odd jobs just be able to sit in some wild aircraft and learn. Now I am just as eager, yet the body has slowed down. Love to see how the planes are in good hands.
All the best,
David Aiken

[mwbourne]

A long time ago I was a navigator in the First Air Commando Wing. logged a few hundred hours in the right seat of the B model and the K. with Farmgate in S.V.N.
I live a couple of hours from Meacham Field and plan to visit this summer. Hope they"ll let me spend an hour or two with the old bird.

[b29flteng]

A long time ago I was a navigator in the First Air Commando Wing. logged a few hundred hours in the right seat of the B model and the K. with Farmgate in S.V.N.
I live a couple of hours from Meacham Field and plan to visit this summer. Hope they"ll let me spend an hour or two with the old bird.

Now you need to tell us some war stories about it....

[gunnyperdue]

mwbourne-

I'll make you a trade.... you can come and spend as much time as you like with the airplane... which we are now calling "Special K"... and we get to video tape an interview of you talking about your experiences flying her!

Deal?

gunny

[mwbourne]

Well, that sounds like a good deal. Most of my time was in the old B model. That was before the On Mark fix.
The Bs the Air Commandos flew in VN had lots of time on them. The same aircraft had flown in WWll, Korea, Bay of Pigs, China, Indonesia. France flew them in their Indo China war. B-26s flew all over the world. They were the preferred aircraft in revolutions throughout the Third World.
The USAF had got rid of all their B-26Bs years before Viet Nam. When suddenly we needed them, we didn’t have any. The USAF collected all kinds of old B models anywhere they could find them. Many came out of bone yards. Most had been parked out in the weeds for years. They were patched-up, given new spark plugs, fresh .50 cal. Machine guns installed and sent off to war. No two were alike. Vacuum powered instruments. 5-channel crystal-tuned VHF radios. Zero nav. Aids. They called for volunteers to fly them and fix them. Our mechanics and gun-plumbers had a nightmare working on them- but they managed to keep them flying. We lost several Bs from failed wing spars, not to mention ground fire, bad weather, air strikes in mountains at night. Those were bad times. For some reason, I always loved the B anyway.
The K fixed most of the obvious problems. It was a great airplane. I never saw combat in the K. But I do have tales I could tell about her. By the time the K went back into Laos and the Nimrods flew her I was gone elsewhere.
I look forward to meeting 679. She’s a grand old airplane. I’ll plan to visit later this summer. I’ll let you know. Maybe we can get together.

[gunnyperdue]

mwbourne-

"I look forward to meeting 679. She’s a grand old airplane. I’ll plan to visit later this summer. I’ll let you know. Maybe we can get together."

Please do... looking forward to it.

gunny

[NImrodA26]

mwbourne,

Don't know if you knew him, but got word today on another net that Tom Wickstrom, former Nimrod Nav, died today. He had compiled a huge amount of B/A-26 info. Don't know if you knew him or not. He was at NKP after I was there.
Randy

[mwbourne]

Randy,
I never served with Tom Wickstrom but I came to know him several years after the war. He was a legendary Nimrod navigator. He had extensive combat experience in the A-26K over Laos. I know he would have loved to check-out 679.

[LadyO2Pilot]

I too learned of Tom Wickstrom's death from another source. I will be taking copies of pictures and an article he wrote about the A/B26s which flew from NKP to the B26K boys at Meacham today. My plane was at NKP during the same time frame. I'm not quite sure how to post the article and picture here....but I'll figure it out later......off to the hangar to start my annual <with mixed emotions.....happy face, frowny face) It's nippy cold out there...LOL

[Obergrafeter]

Not warm like an underground bunker!