Warbird Information Exchange

I was recently reading a readers letter in Flight Magazine's archives in connection with the A-26 crash at Biggin Hill. The author, a friend of Don Bullock mentions in his defense letter that as far as he understood, A-26s where often rolled at airshows in the U.S. I have never heard about this happening at sanctioned airshows in North America and wonder if any WIX'er who used to go to airshows in the 70s can remember any such instance?

T J

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I can't say that I am the all-knowing expert on the subject, but at all the airshows that I went to back then I never once saw someone roll an A-26.

Not knowing who the author is, and not wanting to crap all over them if they can't defend their statement, I don't want to be too harsh but....I find that very hard to believe, especially given how many people not just told but pleaded Don Bullock to not do aerobatics in the plane.

Although, I think back to CAF airshows at the time where the planes would be FULL of passengers during the airshow itself, so anything is possible. It was truly a different time.

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Most UK air show fans think the US is "the wild west"....sounds like they're trying to blame the well known Biggen Hill accident on the U.S.. .
Either that or they're mistaking Bob Hoover and his Shrike for an A-26...That's my theory.

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I saw A-26's race at Lincoln, Mojave and Reno. I have also seen them do fly-by routines.
But I've never even heard of an A-26 doing a roll.

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That's a bit harsh: I think it may be the opposite in fact. European-based friends who've seen the Thunderbirds' overlong routine assume that a lot of US shows are a bit...shall we say, boring??

The Biggin Hill (correct spelling) accident has always been apportioned to Don Bullock's over-exuberance, though in his defence he was an impressive display pilot. The difference between pulling off an audacious (but ill-advised) routine and not pulling it off is a fine line.

I suspect that whoever wrote this piece is someone trying to stir the pot, and also likely someone who was not around at that time.

The pilot obviously held back pressure all of the way through the roll and entered at a G loading that caused one of the main gear to partially extend so I never was of the opinion that there was sufficient aerobatic competency displayed.
Chris...

There was a thread on the Flypast Forum earlier this year? by someone who should have been on the plane that day and he had some ideas that I had not heard before which seemed to match with the footage.

Steve

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See http://www.a-26invader.co.uk/id250.html

And it wasn't just the CAF... if I recall correctly it wasn't until the early 80s that EAA put a stop to that at Oshkosh. Now of course, it is an FAA mandated thing but back then it was a different story.

I went to quite a few airshows in the 70s and never saw one at all much less upside down! I think most of them, if in decent repair , probably were fire bombers by this time. I put this accident pilots skill as about even with the nut who stalled the B52 and blew up. Both were warned not to do it!

Make no mistake: Don Bullock's skill is unquestioned and should not be confused with whatever happened that day. I suspect he succumbed to a bout of overconfidence, which some survive while others don't.

I've read about Invaders being rolled and even looped on occasion, at altitude.

I've been going to airshows since the 1960s in the US and have never seen either of those maneuvers performed at an airshow, though I didn't attend every airshow obviously.

From a structural standpoint I don't think there is any reason that either of those maneuvers couldn't be performed safely in an Invader in a good state of repair given sufficient pilot skill and altitude.

A P-38 should be able to perform a roll just fine, yet one of those crashed at Duxford.

I DO remember seeing a pic. of that A-26 upside down in one of the magazines, ( Can't recall if it was Air Classics...ect...) I'll never forget it's Shadow on the "Top" surfaces !!

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This is not in the US, but here is Sugarland Express doing a roll........starts about the 3:50 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iayVNS20rc

An aviator once reminded me that, as long as the aircraft is performing a 1G maneuver, the airframe doesn't "know" the difference between that and level flight.

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