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

[LadyO2Pilot]

Well, I do have a line on some feed belts, barrel jackets and ammo cans. They are just expensive. I see no monetary reason why we can't go get those except we don't have any monetary. Bought R-2800 top overhaul tools this week from Sun Air. Took care of the budget for this month!!
Earlier was talking about connecting the dots for the loss of 643 at NKP and the incident I described. Got a PM that they were not the same. Thanks for that. Good to know. Now, back to dreaming up new ways to harass O2Lady!! I think it was Yeager or Hoover who said... "never fly the A model of anything" Your airplane, which was at NKP I undertand, is an O-2A. So I waited to fly the O2B, but it only dropped BS bombs and played really obnoxious speeches. Kinda like watching CNN now that I think about the political campaign season. Oops, I did it again. My bad. I have to go now!! Night, JR

Love it........but figure this "military intelligence"......the O-2A is a M337B and the O-2B is a M337A........go figure......so in fact I am flying the B model that did not drop pamphlets and play nasty music.

and ps. I actually am trying to find the picture I have of the panel so you may revel in reading it again......

[NImrodA26]

JR, I think you wanted a better shot of the water colors done by Frank Gorski. Here they are.
Randy

[NImrodA26]

This is the only picture I have of Capt. Frank Gorski. (in the flight suit). This was taken at one of our Nimrod parties, I believe the one where he put the rotating beacon on the roof. He is surrounded by armament troops who are demanding to know how he "expended" their days work!


This is Joe Kittinger at the same party unwinding after a night on the trail. I think it's two Falstaff he's holding. We weren't choosy as long as it was cold!

[A26 Special K]

OK gang... time to play the "Mystery Part" game again. See that little orange thingee in the picture and below it is a little white thingee? What are those and what were they for. None of the Nimrods that I have talked to remember ever using them. Didn't remember they were back there even. But JR... the real JR who has the magic hat found some replacements for the K. This tail is from #666 in the Hurlburt air park. The tail stinger is painted over, but is supposed to be clear as this is where the tail nav lights are located. EWWW, there is a clue maybe?? PS Randy and O2Lady, thanks for your pics and thoughts. I am anxiously awaiting more. Back to trying to go to sleep. JR

[NImrodA26]

Formation lights??????? Heard the term before but didn't know what they were for. Looking at other pics I have they appear to be on both sides.
Or, (this is probably really a long shot!)---I have read that during WWII, when they would bomb while in formation, the rest of the formation would drop their bombs on a signal from the lead bomber/bombardier. IF they were flying at night, and under radio silence, maybe these lights would indicate "bomb doors open" and "bombs away". If it was dark, they wouldn't have been able to see the bomb doors open or bomb release from the lead aircraft.

Also found the excerpt below from another site.

"If the airplane was a former DC-3/C-47 used by the military in WWII, it would have been a light used during nighttime formation flying. This is different from, but used in combination with the navigation lights, which are red on the left wingtip and green on the right wingtip, and white on the tail, which may also have an amber formation light.

in the 1960s formation lights were mostly amber, but were changed to a green glow with the advent of strip lights. Red formation lights were discontinued shortly after WWII.

After the war, rotating red (or white) beacons or strobe lights were added and called anti-collision lights. These were mounted on the upper fuselarge or vertical stabilizer. Some aircraft (back then) also had them on the lower fuselarge."

[CAPFlyer]

I've heard of blue formation lights, but not red. Red was almost universally the passing light pre-WWII and through early WWII. They then used blue formation lights and occasionally amber. The only other red lights on the plane were the identification lights that were normally only turned on when approaching the airfield to land when you needed to identify yourself to the ground, not to your wingmen.

[Dewayne Doud]

These "guess that part" post are fun!

Here is my guess
They are tail lights manufactured by Grimes.
Amber light is a bomb release signal lamp
White light is a position lamp
Both lights were originally located inside the clear plexiglass tailcone, but relocated to sides of aircraft as part of K model modification?

Dewayne

[A26 Special K]

Aha, the game continues... clue # 2. These lights would be found on the tail of a vintage T-33 only there are just two of them and they are facing towards the back just above the tail pipe. What say ye now? BTW, I found 4 of them at Dixie Air Parts which specializes in T-33's, but they are not the same size as the ones on the K. I am coming to you from NJ tonight where it is cold and windy and can't find a good TX BBQ joint anywhere to warm me up. The other JR, Lonesome in Parsipanny!!

[NImrodA26]

Maybe some sort of indicators while taxiing, maybe to indicate to plane behind you that you were stopping/proceeding????
To be totally honest, I never noticed them an anytime before this pic was posted. Course, that was the wrong end of the plane for me. If it didn't shoot or explode, I had very little to do with it.
Randy

[51fixer]

Aha, the game continues... clue # 2. These lights would be found on the tail of a vintage T-33 only there are just two of them and they are facing towards the back just above the tail pipe. What say ye now? BTW, I found 4 of them at Dixie Air Parts which specializes in T-33's, but they are not the same size as the ones on the K. I am coming to you from NJ tonight where it is cold and windy and can't find a good TX BBQ joint anywhere to warm me up. The other JR, Lonesome in Parsipanny!!

I need a couple Orange ones for a T-6G.
Just hop the river over into PA, I'm not too far.

[skymstr02]

OK gang... time to play the "Mystery Part" game again. See that little orange thingee in the picture and below it is a little white thingee? What are those and what were they for. None of the Nimrods that I have talked to remember ever using them. Didn't remember they were back there even. But JR... the real JR who has the magic hat found some replacements for the K. This tail is from #666 in the Hurlburt air park. The tail stinger is painted over, but is supposed to be clear as this is where the tail nav lights are located. EWWW, there is a clue maybe?? PS Randy and O2Lady, thanks for your pics and thoughts. I am anxiously awaiting more. Back to trying to go to sleep. JR

Those are the navigation lights for aircraft that have nav light flashers. The white light is illuminated during the "STEADY" portion and the amber light is illuminated during the "FLASH" portion. They flash in sequence with the wing nav lights. The green, red and amber light would flash and when they were off, the white light would be illuminated. There is a motorized flasher that controls the evolution.

[A26 Special K]

Howdy to all yall. It feels mighty good to be back in the Republic. No disrespect to the NJ folks, but I feel like I should take an interpreter with me next visit. Had the dangdest time getting them to understand the difference between "Ya'll" and "All Ya'll". It is so simple. Ya'll is singular and "All Ya'll" is plural. But I guess it is a cultural thang. I noticed the two outer fixes on the approaches into Newark have HowU and Doin for names. I thought that was a pick up line?? Well, back to bidness here. Let's see, oh yes, those lights are part of the formation light system from WWII. They were rarely used because hardly anybody flew night formation in most of the airplanes. Certainly, by the time of SEA, they didn't dare show a light of any kind at night since the darkness was really their only protection. No wonder none of the A-26A folks remember them. Well, we are going to install them anyway because they were there even if not used. Besides these, there are blue formation lights on the wings that we just recently installed and made functional, thanks to Tim and Hawkeye. Thanks to everybody who took a shot at the answer. One of the reasons I like to do this is to glean new information. There is a wealth of talent on this forum and I appreciate the input........not to mention the offers of BBQ sauce and assorted beverages. By golly, when the K is ready to fly, we are going to throw one heck of a coming out party and "All Ya'll" are invited. Yours truly, JR in Texas

[A26 Special K]

All Ya'll did so well on the last "Mystery Part" here is another chance. Look to the lower right of the picture at the towel rack looking thing on the bottom of the airplane. This by the way, is #666 at the Hurlburt AFB memorial air park. What was this rack used for? Our K has two knobs where this unit was literally sawed off probably by the gear collapse incident. We were really wondering about that. What say ye, o fine people of Middle Forum? JR

[LadyO2Pilot]

That's a funny place for it.....but the one I have on top of the O2 is a FM homing antenna.

Do I win a pony????? huh huh

[A26 Special K]

O2 Lady.....FM Homin Attinna? U mean you have something you can get FM tunes on?? And may I inquire as to what your fixation is on ponies? They don't fly. The only thing they have in common is let's see... uh... they leave a mess on the floor, require a place to hang out, cost a lot of money when you have to call a vet to fix em, they only run for a little while before they poop out, will buck you off at the slightest provocation, and will just barely kill you if you don't watch out. OH WAIT, now I get it. You just like living dangerous. Airplanes and ponies... huh? Well howsomever, could you be just a little more specific about your guess?? PS, would you mind if we borrowed your rack??? We are back to that measurements thing looks like. Need to build one. Thanks, JR