So, Earl, what was the best and worst thing in your experience flying the A/B/wiki-26 Marauder/Nimrod/etc back in the day. How were they to maintain, reliability, etc? What did pilots like best about it? I've heard stories of the "26" being able to out run a Mustang in certain circumstances. Every had a chance to race a Pony in the "26"? 
The 26C was a very good "pilots" aircraft! Very forgiving, easy to fly and if you put the nose down, would accelerate quickly to 380 to 425 IAS. It was a little heavy on the controls and the use of trim was a must to fly it correctly. I don't know about the 26C outrunning a Mustang, but could probably give it a good race. Because of the large vertical stabilizer, it handled very good on one engine and after trimming for single engine flight, other than reduction in airspeed, pretty much flew it like both engines were running. Single engine "go-arounds" at touch down was not to big of a deal, just required a lot of rudder until attaining at least 140 knots IAS. With no ords and 50% fuel or less, it would give you 1,000 or 1200 feet per minute climb on one engine, depending again on what altitude your density altitude was.
When flying close air support, or attacking ground vehicles or boats, was very stable! Heat thermals, which usually bounced around fighters was no problem for the 26C and target focus was not a problem. The "jink" around and up and down to avoid ground ack was a problem, but again, the target was easy to acquire in 3 to 5 seconds of stable flight. After talking to two of my friends who flew the "Nimrods" as they were know in Vietnam, the "gooks" finally had gotten smart and would put up a curtain of 37MM when being attacked, knowing the aircraft would have to fly through and would be damaged. The U.S. lost a lot of the 26K's which were modified 26C's that were flying out of Thailand and Laos, due to the fact that it was closer to the Ho Chi Minh trail, where they were used to attack supply convoys. The vast majority of attacks were carried out at night, with the aid of the "Chandell Stick" C-130's, which would light up the trail for attack. I read somewhere, can't remember where, that at one time, only 22 K's were in country and thru-out the Vietnam conflict, 18 were lost.
Tim Black, one of the famous "Nimrod" pilots, has 5 video's on line, which would tell the story of the Nimrod a lot better than I!
http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id119.htmlIt was a great aircraft, one what was requested for use in WW2 and saw some service during the latter part of the big war, but saw a lot of action in Korea, (dropped the first and last bombs dropped in that conflict), and along with the 26K Nimrods, saw lots of action in Vietnam.
