B-26 Marauders!

[Willy]

Building 'em

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and flying 'em

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[stansdds]

Such a shame that after the war nearly all were scrapped. I think there is only one airworthy B-26 today, another is being restored to airworthy and there may be half a dozen on static display. That's the global total, not just a U.S. total.

[brad kaste]

Thanks Willy for posting these video YouTube clips. My favorite one being the construction of the bomber itself. Obviously,...these were early B-26 versions because of the red circle area within the star insignia. Plus,...it didn't show any "Rosie the Riveteers" working on the production line. That came shortly later.
Also,...the groups of welders sitting down in one large room putting critical pieces together with their skills. Amazing. And showing one spray painter not wearing a mask protector of any kind. Don't think that would happen today...
I have books in my aviation library pertaining to war time aircraft production. Which seem to be more fascinating then the actually flying of the aircraft. Truly,....America was the "Arsenal for Democracy" as FDR once said in a speech.

[txnetcop]

Hey Willy these are OUTSTANDING!!! Thank you!!!
Ted

[aeromed202]

Thank for the interest in what I think was the most unique bomber of the war. It had many firsts in design, production, and service record. Dad survived two crashes in one. I can recommend an excellent book called "Wings of Courage" by Stovall, can't remember the first name. I recognized several events and stories from what little Dad felt like telling about his experiences.

If you really get into it like I did, there is enough information in that book so you can re-fly the entire Southern Route from the US, to South America, Africa, then England using Eckert's B-26. Took weeks but was a blast to do.

[WarHorse47]

Such a shame that after the war nearly all were scrapped. I think there is only one airworthy B-26 today, another is being restored to airworthy and there may be half a dozen on static display. That's the global total, not just a U.S. total.This one??

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--WH

[PRB]

That B-26A was restored at Chino, CA. I had the very good fortune to have visited the Chino Planes of Fame museum one day while that ship was there. I consider myself very fortunate to have gazed upon that beautiful lady. They did the restoration for some other organization. Don't know where the plane is now. Not at Chino, in any case. :salute:

Here is an awesome photo of a bran new B-26 at the Martin plant in 1941. This is from the book "Pacific War Eagles, China/Pacific Aerial Conflict in ORIGINAL COLOR". Tons of amazing photos in that book. Like this one!

[Willy]

The Marauder is my favorite of the US bombers. I think the one in the attached pictures now resides at Kermit Weeks "Fantasy of Flight". He's supposed to have one in airworthy condition, but he doesn't fly it.

Dave Eckert did a nice one for FS2004 and Damian Radice did a bunch of paints for it.

[Bomber_12th]

Yep, the only one currently possible of flight, which WH has shared photos of, is the early-model example owned by Kermit Weeks, based at the Fantasy of Flight museum, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:State>. Paul, it was actually restored by Aero Trader, which is at <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chino</st1:place></st1:City> as well. It hasn't flown in several years - with only Kermit himself, to fly all of the 100+ aircraft in his collection, his flight worthy aircraft are typically only flown for a few years, before they are pickled and another is de-pickled - with only a small amount of aircraft ever operational at one given time. Hopefully one day it will fly again. (Right now his B-25 is being de-pickled, to be flown again soon)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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I've always found it very interesting that Kermit's B-26, is the short-winged model, which led to its reputation early on, before things were better sorted on later models. It really is the 'hot-rod' variant - I recall reading once, that when the owners of Aero Trader took it aloft for the first time, they found that advancing the power on the aircraft did nothing to increase the aircraft's lift! I always liked the prop domes as well.<o:p></o:p>

[PRB]

Yep, the only one currently possible of flight, which WH has shared photos of, is the early-model example owned by Kermit Weeks, based at the Fantasy of Flight museum, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:State>. Paul, it was actually restored by Aero Trader, which is at <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Chino</st1:place></st1:City> as well. It hasn't flown in several years - with only Kermit himself, to fly all of the 100+ aircraft in his collection, his flight worthy aircraft are typically only flown for a few years, before they are pickled and another is de-pickled - with only a small amount of aircraft ever operational at one given time. Hopefully one day it will fly again. (Right now his B-25 is being de-pickled, to be flown again soon)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
I've always found it very interesting that Kermit's B-26, is the short-winged model, which led to its reputation early on, before things were better sorted on later models. It really is the 'hot-rod' variant - I recall reading once, that when the owners of Aero Trader took it aloft for the first time, they found that advancing the power on the aircraft did nothing to increase the aircraft's lift! I always liked the prop domes as well.<o:p></o:p>

Roger, John. Good stuff. Didn't know that. I think I knew the one pictured was the "deadly" short-winged version, and the prop spinner domes seemed to confirm this. It's also interesting that the men of the 22nd BG in Australia had no complaints about the handling characteristics of the "short-winged killer". They loved it. Why? It was almost faster than the Zeros chasing them out of Lae and Rabaul. Landing the beastie wasn't the problem for those men!

[JorisVandenBerghe]

I would love to see a Marauder flying in Europe (not that it's going to happen anytime soon - just dreamin'). A shame most of them were scrapped after the war ended...was my favourite bomber in CFS3 too...remember flying the 'bomb jet base' mission well, fighting off Me 262's from the tail gunner/left and right waist positions.

Fantastic machine indeed. If one would be flying displays I'd consider visiting the US to see it fly (still haven't seen any decent P-38 displays either)...