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

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

While Mona is getting a lot of attention, Lisa is not being neglected. Arnold, David B and Rand have been busy giving her some TLC. Arnold installed some of the new Y leads for the ignition system. There are some straight high tension leads being replaced as well. The newly overhauled mags have been timed so we are getting very close to being ready to give Lisa a whirl around the dance floor. Lots of details yet to go, but we are getting there. This coming Saturday should see more progress made on Mona's hook ups etc. Hawkeye is making us some hot Posole for lunch to warm us up so that will help get thru the cold day we are supposed to have. We are planning to have an A26 ground school on Sunday, March 1 starting at 9 am in the Briefing Room at the Vintage Flying Museum, Meacham Field in Ft Worth. The cost is $150 and includes lunch. This is a fund raiser for the restoration so please help if you can. Come join us and find out how the A26 became the fastest twin engine piston bomber the AF operated in WWII. Thawed a little bit in the Republic today!
JR

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

Randy R, Bob D, Frank N.... hey guys, I got to wondering about .50 cal ammo that was used in the A-26's back at NKP. How many different types of ammo were available then like armor piercing, tracer, etc? Did you load all of the guns with the same type or were they mixed where one gun would get one type and others another? Were the belts all loaded uniformly or mixed ammo? Thanks for the info, JR

NImrodA26 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 26, 2015 4:31 pm

Pretty much all the .50 cal we got came in 100 rd boxes, pre-linked. API was the most common we used as I remember. It would come in the boxes with 4API, 1APIT. I know the tracers had a red tip. I think black was armor-piercing, silver with red tip was Armor-piercing incendiary tracer. I don't recall whether or not we ever used any just plain ball ammo or not.

therealJR · **Posted:** Thu Feb 26, 2015 7:07 pm

Friday and Saturday's weather is forecasted to be not so nice. We still have quite a hill ahead of us before Kay's ready to go outside. So every Saturday is vitally important to the team if we are to get to OSH this year. We can handle the cold and heat but not so with the ice. Winter is almost over and we will surely give ole mother nature a run for the money. Come on out and see for yourselves or better yet $$$ help too. This is an expensive proposition, and boy can these guys can eat! So we will likely work Sunday's to catch up.

Services for David A's Mom is tomorrow at 1PM.

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

NImrodA26 wrote:

Pretty much all the .50 cal we got came in 100 rd boxes, pre-linked. API was the most common we used as I remember. It would come in the boxes with 4API, 1APIT. I know the tracers had a red tip. I think black was armor-piercing, silver with red tip was Armor-piercing incendiary tracer. I don't recall whether or not we ever used any just plain ball ammo or not.

From the film that we saw of using the guns at night, the target that was clobbered must have been hit by APIT since it started to burn and there were multiple explosions soon after. Firing eight .50's all at once, if they all worked, must have been a heck of a lot of noise in the cockpit and very unpleasant on the receiving end. Thanks Randy! JR

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

I finally figured out how the real JR figured out that it was time to hang "Mona" on the wing. When "Mona" started marking her territory with oil it meant she was ready to go. I just wasn't observant enough at first. But that is why he is the Crew Chief and I am only a lowly pilot who gets to use his airplane when she is all done. And he let me know that I better not bring it back "broke". :-)

The other JR

rdennard · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 12:33 pm

During my visit to the little "garden spot" a few miles from "Land of a Million Elephants" (Laos), I don't think we flew tracers. That would have given the gunners on the ground eight lines pointing up to the origin. We did everything we could to keep those gunners from figuring out where the planes were. So... every thing we flew were armor piercing incendiary (API). I suspect tracers weren't needed because the pilots could see where they were hitting because it would light up the ground... Frank can probably tell us what he saw as the rounds hit the ground... or better yet, when they hit the trucks.

The rounds we got were mostly belted up... I think in 100 rounds belts like Randy said. So, we just put whatever we had in the aircraft ammo "cans" and loaded them on the plane. That said, one guy spent 12 hours every night in the ammo shack "belting up" ammo. I don't remember how much each aircraft ammo can held, but it was an odd number (maybe something like 375 rounds... Randy?) There were lots of loose rounds and links to be used up. There were also lots of partial belts. There was a machine that we would use to link everything together. The guy working in the ammo shack would put the belts and rounds together and then load them into the aircraft cans. Day-shift would come in first thing in the morning (0630), load all the ammo cans onto a "duce & a half" flat bed truck and start down the line reloading all the aircraft that had fired the night before.

I always hated the guns. They were messy with all the lube slathered every where... when the guns fired it made a black greasy mess. The feed chutes could cut you to ribbons (especially after a jam)... working in the ammo shack was a mindless boring job... and slogging the filled ammo boxes around was back-breaking work. BUT... it still makes me smile today just thinking about the 1150-1250 rounds per minute X 8 (~ 9600 rounds per min) being spit out toward the bad guys.

NImrodA26 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:57 pm

According to the side of the box, they held 350 rounds. I believe the belt would hold another 20-25 rounds.

We would put the belts together by hand, using single rounds. They had to be put in exactly even with the others or a jam would occur. Each time the guns were put in "holdback" position, each gun dropped a good round into the brass bay. That would make for a lot of loose rounds.

therealJR · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 9:55 am

Kay's Krewe is shut down due to our record snowfall & generally icy weather. Everything in N. Texas is iced over with more sleet / freezing rain forcasted today. I just hate it when that happens.
Some events of this weekend's Ft Worth Cowtown Marathon are cancelled or delayed. Our own ironman David A is entered.

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

I can't remember the last time we got skunked by Ma Nature. We have worked when it was colder, but the roads were so icy that the museum didn't even open today. Tomorrow looks some better so we will hold our A26 class starting at 9 am or whenever we can get to the hangar. Would you believe it is supposed to be back to 70 by Tuesday? Most illogical! JR

CAPFlyer · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 8:48 pm

You know it's bad when all of the FBOs that de-ice at Love are out of de-ice fluid (or almost) and DFW's GA ramp is out as well. I think most of the airlines still had enough, but I'm pretty sure most were getting low today and I don't know if anyone got deliveries or not when the roads started to thaw. This is one of the worse weeks of weather we've had in a while for sure.

NImrodA26 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 28, 2015 11:56 pm

…..
You know it's bad when all of the FBOs that de-ice at Love are out of de-ice fluid (or almost) and DFW's GA ramp is out as well.
========
Wow! Sure hope it doesn't hold up all those folks going to that big conference on "Global warming"!!!!!!

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

Hey Randy, how you like this angle of "Mona" in all her radiant beauty?? Sure wish Al Gore was around to make Ma Nature straighten up so we could get some work done. Too doggone cold in our unheated hangar even if we could get on the roads. Tomorrow will be nearly 70 degrees and then another Arctic blast hits on Wednesday with more ice and sleet on top of the ice that refreezes overnight. It couldn't be just plain ol' snow. Don't know what we did to irritate Mother Nature, but if anybody has any pull with her, please tell her we say " we give"! :-)

NImrodA26 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 02, 2015 2:06 pm

Wow, that looks nice. Hope Hawkeye is going to capture the audio when she fires up. That should be awesome. Hope your weather improves. I know we're sure looking forward to Spring and Summer.

A26 Special K · **Joined:** Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm **Posts:** 2559

Speaking of our A26 systems class last Sunday, some ventured into the cold hangar to check the cockpit of K and how all of the switches and things relate to those systems. Our friend from Florida, Terry, was particularly interested in seeing everything and then retreating to the warmth of the classroom. Hmmm, wonder why? Who would have thought a resident of the Keys would have a problem with the cold in the Republic? Our theory is that an offer of some good ol' Texas chili was turned down for a grilled chiken salad. Now that's another surprise right there. That chili would have solved all problems!!! Ya'll come out to see us in about two weeks when the weather gets righteous again and see for yourselves. :-)

JR

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