B-26 Heads for Museum [Updated]

June 1, 1944, B-26
Nov. 5, 1944, A-26 Invader

Rick Rouan of the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle Gazette reports on a B-26 Marauder that is returning to the 1941 Historical Aircraft Group Museum in Geneseo, N.Y., after being restored by the Historical Aircraft Squadron. The plane should arrive in time for the Geneseo Airshow, Thursday through Sunday.

[Update: The June 1, 1944, photo at the top shows a B-26 Marauder. The second story, from Nov. 5, 1944, shows the A-26 Invader, the type of aircraft that was restored.]

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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3 Responses to B-26 Heads for Museum [Updated]

  1. Earl Boebert's avatar Earl Boebert says:

    One of my co-workers in the Air Force in the 1960’s had been a B-26 instructor pilot at McDill AFB outside Tampa, FL. The B-26’s greatest asset in combat also posed a great threat to student pilots: it was a very, very fast airplane for its day. Students transitioning from slower training planes would consistently misjudge how fast they had to be going to safely take off, pull up prematurely, and stall out at the end of the runway. This earned McDill its unofficial motto of “One a Day Into Tampa Bay.”

    My co-worker told me that the instructor pilots took to carrying a sawed-off pool cue on training flights. They’d keep one eye on the airspeed indicator and one on the student; if they saw him starting to pull up too soon they’d deliver a sharp rap to the knuckles with the pool cue, thus saving both their lives and the aircraft as well.

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  2. Earl Boebert's avatar Earl Boebert says:

    Oopsie to both of us. Larry’s picture shows a Martin B-26 “Marauder;” the referenced article shows a Douglas bomber that was originally called the A-26 “Invader” and became the (second) B-26 when the Martin bomber was phased out and USAF nomenclature was simplified. (This has been confusing aviation historians since 1948). My comment above pertains to the Martin Marauder. As a footnote, the Douglas Invader had a strange and checkered Cold War history.

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    • lmharnisch's avatar lmharnisch says:

      @Earl: Thanks for clearing that up…. The modern photo shows the plane at an angle and I’m not that good on spotting the more unusual old planes (obviously)!

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