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28 April 2 & 3, 2016 STATIC DISPLAYS 75 Years
of Airpower
A-26
&RXUWHV\SKRWR The Douglas A-26/B-26 duction, a number of modi- Invader versions included the
bomber was the only Ameri- fications were progressively A-26D and A-26E light bomb-
can bomber to fly missions in introduced so that by 1948, ers, GA-26C ground training
three wars. After World War the A-26 was one of the few aircraft and the KA-26A tanker.
II, it served as a first-line wartime aircraft types still in Some A/B-26s were equipped
bomber during the Korean War service with the post-war U.S. for photo reconnaissance, and
and during the Vietnam War. Air Force. When the famous during the 1960s, some surplus
Douglas started the A-26 in Martin B-26 Marauder retired B-26s were used to tow targets.
1941 to follow the A-20/DB-7 and the Air Force deleted the The last U.S. military Invader
Havoc bomber. designation “A” (for attack was retired in 1972 and donated
category), the Douglas Invader to the Smithsonian’s National
Douglas built 2,503 A- took on the B-26 designation. Air and Space Museum.
26/B-26 Invaders. During pro-
B-25
The North American B-25 drawings and 195,000 engi- Some versions carried 75-mm ber guns in the conventional &RXUWHV\SKRWR
Mitchell, a twin-engine bomber neering man-hours to produce cannon, machine guns and bombardier’s compartment. One
that became standard equip- the first one, but nearly 10,000 added firepower of 13 .50-cali- version carried eight .50-caliber guns in the nose in an arrange-
ment for the Allied air forces in were produced from late 1939, ment that provided 14 forward-
World War II, was perhaps the when the contract was awarded firing guns
most versatile aircraft of the to North American Aviation,
war. It became the most heav- through 1945.
ily armed airplane in the world,
was used for high- and low-level Named for famed airpow-
bombing, strafing, photorecon- er pioneer Brigadier General
naissance, submarine patrol, William “Billy” Mitchell, it
and even as a fighter. It was was a twin-tail, mid-wing land
distinguished as the aircraft monoplane powered by two
that completed the historic raid 1,700-horsepower Wright Cy-
over Tokyo in 1942. clone engines.
It required 8,500 original Normal bomb capacity was
5,000 pounds (2268 kilograms).
Try a little
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