Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: Tig on April 19, 2022, 07:41:20 PM

Title: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 19, 2022, 07:41:20 PM
Definitely want to throw this one out there, I would LOVE to see the Douglas A-26 Invader added to Aces High 3. It's forgotten in the vast majority of history books, but I work on one in real life, and I will tell you right now that they are fascinating planes!
Very fast, I might add....
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Arlo on April 19, 2022, 07:44:33 PM
It would go great in the new Korean War arena with the Sabre and Mig.  :D
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 19, 2022, 07:50:57 PM
It would go great in the new Korean War arena with the Sabre and Mig.  :D

Methinks I smell some leg-pulling....  :huh

I mean, the Invaders did make it to Europe in late 1944. Sure it wasn't the height of the action but they were there for several months before VE Day.
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Arlo on April 19, 2022, 07:57:05 PM
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YBoVELmhYKM/0.jpg)
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Mongoose on April 20, 2022, 08:21:18 AM
How are you managing to work on one in real life?
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 20, 2022, 05:44:38 PM
How are you managing to work on one in real life?

I volunteer! We're all volunteers on the Special Kay crew. We operate out of Meacham Field in Fort Worth.

(https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/275313395_3886579388234108_2517203611084660806_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p180x540&_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=TpaNJmcriuUAX9UR6hs&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=00_AT-VMmoRsVHHIU6qOrnY4RCzeSW7pZ6CqQS7Ed3w0eyeEg&oe=626528B8)
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Arlo on April 20, 2022, 07:02:33 PM
I volunteer! We're all volunteers on the Special Kay crew. We operate out of Meacham Field in Fort Worth.

(https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/275313395_3886579388234108_2517203611084660806_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p180x540&_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=TpaNJmcriuUAX9UR6hs&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=00_AT-VMmoRsVHHIU6qOrnY4RCzeSW7pZ6CqQS7Ed3w0eyeEg&oe=626528B8)

Nice place. Loved visiting it.  :cheers:
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 20, 2022, 10:04:43 PM
Nice place. Loved visiting it.  :cheers:

 :cheers:
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Mongoose on April 21, 2022, 08:05:04 AM
I volunteer! We're all volunteers on the Special Kay crew. We operate out of Meacham Field in Fort Worth.

You lucky dog!   :salute
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Dichotomy on April 24, 2022, 01:34:30 PM
I volunteer! We're all volunteers on the Special Kay crew. We operate out of Meacham Field in Fort Worth.

(https://scontent-dfw5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/275313395_3886579388234108_2517203611084660806_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p180x540&_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=TpaNJmcriuUAX9UR6hs&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-2.xx&oh=00_AT-VMmoRsVHHIU6qOrnY4RCzeSW7pZ6CqQS7Ed3w0eyeEg&oe=626528B8)

Wait what?  You've got an A26 at Meacham?  Any way I can arrange to see that bad girl in person?

Edit and yes the A26 is one I've long wished they added to the list of platforms.  I think she'd be fun to 'fly' :)
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 24, 2022, 01:56:57 PM
Wait what?  You've got an A26 at Meacham?  Any way I can arrange to see that bad girl in person?

Edit and yes the A26 is one I've long wished they added to the list of platforms.  I think she'd be fun to 'fly' :)

We've got two!
One is a Commemorative Air Force A-26B Invader, "Night Mission", and ours is the only airworthy B-26K Counter Invader, Special Kay!

https://vintageflyingmuseum.org/ (https://vintageflyingmuseum.org/)
We're based at the Vintage Flying Museum, come on out and find me! I'm the only kid with a black Special Kay t-shirt there, I usually wear my combat pants and boots too, so find me if you can ;)
Admission ain't bad either, $10 per adult to get a glimpse into one of the most active warbird operations in the United States!
We actually just did engine runs and gear swings last weekend, I even got to do the gear swings myself, which was very special seeing as I'm the most junior crewmember!
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Dichotomy on April 24, 2022, 08:28:41 PM
We've got two!
One is a Commemorative Air Force A-26B Invader, "Night Mission", and ours is the only airworthy B-26K Counter Invader, Special Kay!

https://vintageflyingmuseum.org/ (https://vintageflyingmuseum.org/)
We're based at the Vintage Flying Museum, come on out and find me! I'm the only kid with a black Special Kay t-shirt there, I usually wear my combat pants and boots too, so find me if you can ;)
Admission ain't bad either, $10 per adult to get a glimpse into one of the most active warbird operations in the United States!
We actually just did engine runs and gear swings last weekend, I even got to do the gear swings myself, which was very special seeing as I'm the most junior crewmember!

Tig I will DM you a week before I'm on my way.  I live an hour and a half from there but damn a chance to see a 26 in person would be awesome.  I'll be the guy in a black t-shirt, justin ropers, and either a black ball cap or my trusty resistol cowboy hat.  But I do need to get out of this one horse town for a bit and going to see a bird that I've admired for years sounds like proper motivation :)
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 25, 2022, 03:57:11 PM
Tig I will DM you a week before I'm on my way.  I live an hour and a half from there but damn a chance to see a 26 in person would be awesome.  I'll be the guy in a black t-shirt, justin ropers, and either a black ball cap or my trusty resistol cowboy hat.  But I do need to get out of this one horse town for a bit and going to see a bird that I've admired for years sounds like proper motivation :)

Sounds great! Saturdays are the best day to come out, that's when I'm there, and it's also the most active day for us.
Look forward to seeing you there, Dichotomy!
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: tmetal on April 26, 2022, 12:44:50 PM
We use to live just down the road in White Settlement and stopped in around 11 years ago.  Nice little air museum, my son had a blast.  There was one of those half scale F4u from War Aircraft Replicas in the process of being built there. Do you know if that was ever completed TIG?
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on April 26, 2022, 05:31:05 PM
We use to live just down the road in White Settlement and stopped in around 11 years ago.  Nice little air museum, my son had a blast.  There was one of those half scale F4u from War Aircraft Replicas in the process of being built there. Do you know if that was ever completed TIG?

Sadly I've never seen a 1/2 scale Corsair at the museum. I first visited in 2015. I do remember a Fokker Dr. 1 replica, that's the only replica I can think of.
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Ack-Ack on May 02, 2022, 02:51:54 PM
Methinks I smell some leg-pulling....  :huh

I mean, the Invaders did make it to Europe in late 1944. Sure it wasn't the height of the action but they were there for several months before VE Day.

And rife with mechanical issues and break downs.
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on May 02, 2022, 03:02:48 PM
True, the periscope dual turrets was too far ahead of its time, and the landing gear wasn't exactly beefy....
We still put a lot of care into maintaining out landing gear and landing it realll gently, lots of videos of Invaders crunching the nosegear.
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: TryHard on May 04, 2022, 07:17:43 PM
And rife with mechanical issues and break downs.

B29s were not with out their teething problems...
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Volron on May 04, 2022, 08:45:25 PM
Is there enough of a difference between the B and C (glass nose) to warrant two air frames, or could we use a hybrid?  For example: To my understanding, pilots in the Pacific liked the F4F-3 more than the -4 version for various reasons.  Would we have a similar issue between the B and C variants for the A-26?

Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on May 05, 2022, 03:58:54 PM
Is there enough of a difference between the B and C (glass nose) to warrant two air frames, or could we use a hybrid?  For example: To my understanding, pilots in the Pacific liked the F4F-3 more than the -4 version for various reasons.  Would we have a similar issue between the B and C variants for the A-26?

Nope, literally the nose is what determined it. Skilled aircrews could swap out the nose for missions in a matter of 4-6 hours if I recall correctly.
Also something people usually forget- Invaders still packed a hell of a forward punch with the glass nose, they had 2 .50s tucked into the right(?) side of the glass nose, to supplement the 6 .50s on the wings.
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on May 11, 2022, 04:25:11 PM
On this topic, I stumbled across some cool Invader materials while I was looking at 3D modeling stuff. Right now in my Engineering class I'm working on a simplified F-14 Tomcat that's turning out better than I expected. Might try and make a CAD model of an Invader sometime now that I have this! Not only is it cool because it has the cross section profiles, but with the CAD program I use it's not too hard to translate the plans into a 3D model.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Douglas_A-26_Invader_schematics.gif)
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Dichotomy on May 13, 2022, 08:55:19 PM
Sounds great! Saturdays are the best day to come out, that's when I'm there, and it's also the most active day for us.
Look forward to seeing you there, Dichotomy!
Just made a note to come up there in June brother :)  I'll DM you and let you know

Thanks

Oh and +10 for adding the 26
Title: Re: Douglas A-26 Invaders!
Post by: Tig on May 14, 2022, 06:04:49 AM
Just made a note to come up there in June brother :)  I'll DM you and let you know

Thanks

Oh and +10 for adding the 26

I'll be there 2nd and 4th weekends. Just yesterday a small detachment of the crew took her all the way to Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota for an airshow there! She's officially back in the air after about 2 years!