By Budd Davisson, EAA 22483
This article first appeared in the February 2019 issue of Warbirds.
The face of war changes so rapidly that aerial weaponry has to constantly evolve, sometimes in fundamental ways, to keep up. Sometimes, however, the very thing that makes an airplane what it is has to be retained but refined to newer, narrower purposes. This is how it was with Douglas A-26K Special Kay and its specially trained brethren.
Special Kay is special for a number of reasons, some of them having to do with the luck (both good and bad) that followed it through its post-military career and allowed it to be the sole flying representative of its very limited breed. It has a different type of warbird history, and its struggle for survival is unique. Time and the elements were its real enemy.
Currently under the care of Greatest Generation Aircraft when not on the road to air shows, Special Kay is displayed in the Vintage Flying Museum at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport in Texas. As project manager, Jim Reynolds, Warbirds 599649, has been its protector throughout the acquisition and restoration process. He knows every inch of its sometimes-tortured journey and every bolt and rivet in its airframe.
Airframe Survival Requires Some Luck
“Special Kay is one of the 40 A-26 airframes that, having been renamed B-26s, were heavily modified by On Mark Engineering in Van Nuys, California, during the ’60s,” Jim said. “They were remanufactured, really, to perform nocturnal interdiction missions in Laos during the Vietnam War. Although Kay never did fly in the theater for which she was redesigned, she did fly combat missions over Europe during World War II and later possibly in Panama while being used by the CIA for surveillance and mapping. During Vietnam, she stayed stateside as a combat trainer for the K models. She was, however, en route to Vietnam, but … missing out on her final combat tour probably aided her long-term survival.”
Jim, a native of the Texas Panhandle, came into aviation via the usual model airplane route but graduated to the real thing flying an L-4 and L-16 as a teenager in a local Civil Air Patrol unit. He continued building his aviation résumé as a CFI until he decided to make a change.
“I ran away to the circus known as the airlines,” he said. “At the time, however, I always wanted to fly warbirds, but got married, had kids, and ran into the traditional roadblocks we all face when wanting to fly unusual airplanes.”
His flying dream was rekindled at an air show. “I saw the B-25 being flown by the Greatest Generation [Aircraft], which operated as Pacific Prowlers, and was really struck by it,” Jim said. “I was coming up on retirement and started hanging out around them. The net result was a type rating in the B-25 in 2009.”
As Jim was working his way into flying warbirds, A-26K serial No. 64-17679 was working its way through and around the various obstacles that often face big — meaning expensive — WWII aircraft that are fighting to survive. Surplused by the government in 1972, in 1977 the airplane was sold to a firefighting operation in Canada, which already had a number of Invaders in its inventory. At the time, all of the structure that it carried into combat for the surveillance and combat roles was still onboard. That kind of extraneous structure normally disappears as soon as an airplane is slotted to be a tanker. They would normally strip out gun mounts, armor, camera installations, hard points, etc. all of which are essential for a quality restoration and almost impossible to find.
“In 1978, a tanker pilot who had never flown a K model and didn’t realize how differently they handled, landed it short and ripped out the gear, trashing the propellers and engines,” Jim said. “Then, to add insult to injury, the airport apparently hooked a truck or ’dozer to it and dragged it some distance across the airport to get it out of the way.”
The airplane laid there for nine years before another tanker operator flying A-26s, Denny Lynch, sent a mechanic over to see what was still usable on what was essentially a wrecked airplane. After the mechanic inspected the airplane he reported back that he thought the airplane was very salvageable. Lynch then sent a crew with engines, props, and parts and got it flyable again. It was flown back to Billings, Montana, to be part of Lynch’s stable of Invaders in his firefighting operation. However, for unknown reasons it was never converted. So, it remained original throughout.
A Big Project, Not for the Faint of Heart
“Lynch passed away in 2005, and the airplane’s future was very uncertain,” Jim said. “First, a German enthusiast looking for a dual-control 26, which all of the K models were, showed great interest, but the deal, as they often do, fell through. Then, a Californian started the project and ferried it to Texas, but then backed out. We inspected it and had doubts whether the organization had the expertise and finances to get it back in the air and restore it the way it should be. That’s when yours truly stepped out in front of the bull.
“It was pretty obvious that if we didn’t do something, the airplane was going to wind up on a scrap heap somewhere and none of us wanted that to happen — especially me,” Jim added. “I was retired and stuck my hand in the air and said something to the effect of, ‘I’ll take it on and honcho the whole project. Let’s do it!’ So, we did it. We started in 2011 and started by evicting all the birds that had made it into a condo and cleaning up after them.”
Jim is emphatic when discussing one person in particular who helped with the restoration: J.R. Hofmann. “We can’t talk about the restoration of Special Kay without immediately mentioning J.R. Hofmann,” he said. “I first met him while he was standing in the open bomb bay of the B-25 at Meacham. He was as excited as any spectator I’d ever seen. Better yet, he was a retired U.S. Air Force crew chief and wanted to be part of our restoration efforts. He proved to be invaluable. He has fantastic leadership capabilities and organizational skills, and he proved it by the way in which he handled the over 65 volunteers that worked on Kay over the eight years it took to restore her. Every single bit of the work done on the airplane was by volunteer labor, which can be complicated, and that wouldn’t have worked out if it wasn’t for J.R. It seemed as if he came up with the right people at the right time for each of the thousands of tasks we had to complete and was able to keep everyone happy and pointed in the right direction. Many of our volunteers are vets and USAF maintenance types from the 301st Fighter Wing on Carswell Air Force Base who come out in force on a regular basis — [they] are invaluable. This is especially true because, with the addition of Kay and a DC-3, Pacific Prowlers was renamed Greatest Generation Aircraft.”
A Higher Goal
According to Jim, they hadn’t gotten very far into the Special Kay project before, in their eyes, the hardware aspect of the airplane became almost secondary to a larger goal.
“We had a lot of Vietnam vets come by and talk about the airplanes,” he said. “Then I went to the first reunion of the 603rd Air Combat Squadron and 609th Special Operations Squadron, known as the Nimrods, and finally realized how special our A-26K was. The 609th worked almost entirely in Laos hammering the Ho Chi Minh Trail at night trying to stop supplies that were pouring into Vietnam. It was hazardous duty and all at low altitude over mountainous terrain. They lost 15 planes doing that. I stood amongst those guys and realized that, if I had heard so little about those operations, in all probability, the rest of the world knew even less about them. These guys deserve to be remembered, and that thought inspired me: It became a personal goal to get that airplane finished and go to air shows to tell the little-known tale of the heroes of the 609th. Yes, the airplane was important, but preserving that part of our nation’s history for coming generations would be a goal of our restoration.”
Almost as soon as they got the airplane back to Texas, the decision was made to get the engines and props overhauled. “The engines on the airplane were originally R-2800s that mounted toothpick props,” Jim said. “The engines Lynch put on the airplane were different versions of the same engines: R-2800-CB3, 2,500 hp, swinging clipped, paddle-blade props. We sent them to Anderson Aeromotive in Grangeville, Idaho, which has been doing 2800s for decades and has all the parts needed. They said we were lucky the airplane made it to Texas from Montana because the main bearing on one was just about to fail.
“When we started working on the airframe we were continuously being reminded of what a unique airplane it was,” he continued. “It had flown very little after being released by the USAF so there hadn’t been enough time for any of the wartime stuff that made it special to disappear. It was a true time capsule. The way we received it was almost exactly as it was when it last flew for the military. In the world of warbird restorations, that is extremely rare and gave us an opportunity to do it exactly right.”
The K models were designed to do several roles (weapons delivery and reconnaissance), and provisions were incorporated into the basic structure of the airplane for all roles along with the numerous modifications when going through On Mark’s program (see sidebar). These include mountings and camera/view ports in the bomb bay, elimination of the upper and ventral gun positions, hard points all the way down the wings, tip tanks, and both gun and bomber noses.
“When we started on the airframe we were relieved to see how corrosion-free it was. It had spent many decades sitting outside, sometimes laying in the dirt, but most of that time was in Montana or Canada where it was in a fairly dry and clean environment. No acid rain,” Jim said. “When in the service, it did spend time in Louisiana and Florida, but the entire last, roughly, 35-40 years of its life has been in dry territory, and it shows.
“One of the more fortunate things about rebuilding an A-26 is that parts aren’t nearly as hard to find as for something like the B-25,” he said. “Invaders were operated by the military until the ’70s, and then worked for so long as tankers that a much lower percentage of them were scrapped. So many had survived and were still working that there was a demand for their parts much longer so stuff didn’t get junked. That having been said, although Kay was very intact and original, there were times, like repairing a damaged main gear trunnion, that we had to have parts fabricated to factory drawings to keep us in the air.”
So, How Does it Fly?
There is a tendency to look at an airplane like the A-26 that, in the public’s eye, bears a slight resemblance to a B-25 and lump them together. However, according to Jim Reynolds, their mission and their flying characteristics are totally different.
“Right from the get-go, you have to know that the B-25 is a bomber and flies like one,” Jim said. “The A-26 is an attack bird and flies more like a fighter. For that reason, it requires a little more attention to detail because of its laminar wing. Also, it was a much later design and much more sophisticated. The B-25 has a St. Bernard’s personality, big and friendly, while the A-26 is more of a Greyhound or maybe Doberman. It’s not unfriendly, just demands a little more understanding.”
The A-26 has no nose wheel steering so controlling it on the ground requires use of differential power and brakes.
“For that reason, there’s a viewing port in the floor that lets you see the nose wheel before you drop the hammer,” Jim said. “Then, you stand on the brakes and run the power up to 48 inches, making sure both engines are developing the same power. That gives a lot of rudder authority right at the beginning of the takeoff roll. You can take off like any other airplane, just bring the power up and start rolling. However, until the rudder becomes effective, directional control can be a little dicey. You also have to be watchful for other airplanes. Even at idle it can blow little airplanes over.
“At 105 knots, just a hair of back-pressure brings it off the ground, and you don’t have time to piddle around because the gear speed is only 140 knots and it’s accelerating like crazy. One hundred and twenty-five is a safe single-engine speed, but it goes through that so quickly it’s not much of a concern.”
Jim said Special Kay climbs at 160 knots at 44 inches manifold pressure and 2400 rpm, which makes for a rate of climb of about 1,500 fpm.
“When we level out for cruise, we can expect 210 knots true airspeed at 30 inches and 2000 rpm,” he said. “We’ll be burning about 180 gph total, although we can get that down to 160 gph at 175 knots. This assumes we don’t have rockets and such on the wings. They slow us down about 20 knots.”
Despite its resemblance to a bomber, Jim said the A-26’s controls are pretty responsive.
“The controls are definitely not bomber-like and are reasonably light and respond quickly. As long as the aileron gap seals aren’t leaking, that is,” Jim said. “There is amateur movie film of a Nimrod rolling one of their 26Ks. Without the gap seals, however, it handles like a truck. The K has a bigger rudder, so that is fairly firm, but the elevator and ailerons are very pleasant.
“I bring it over the fence at 115 knots, but you can’t hold it off like a 25 and land really nose high,” he added. “You actually land with the nose gear just barely off the pavement because the nose gear is one of the airplane’s weak points. The laminar airfoil wing unloads fairly abruptly, and if you land nose high, the nose gear can slam down quite hard. More than one A-26 has folded its nose gear on impact. So, you fly it into ground effect with a little power and land nearly three-point.”
What Makes Special Kay Special?
The original A-26 Invader was renamed B-26 in 1947 when the fledgling U.S. Air Force replaced the aircraft nomenclature of the older U.S. Army Air Forces. As such, the B-26 served proudly in Korea and various police actions, and was a central player in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. In 1961, a dozen B-26 Invaders became some of the first U.S. aircraft in Southeast Asia with the CIA providing the initial pilots as they assisted the Royal Lao Government fighting the Pathet Lao. They were the first in several chapters that saw the Invaders fighting a war that supposedly didn’t exist outside of Vietnam. But, in that role, the B-26 wasn’t always successful.
Equipped with the eight-gun nose, the B-26 was being used as a ground attack aircraft when, in the space of a few months, two of them shed their wings while executing strafing missions — one at a governmental airpower demonstration. The need for the aircraft to carry out attacks over the Ho Chin Minh Trail was urgent, so in 1963, the government signed a contract with On Mark Engineering in Van Nuys, California, to modify 40 Invaders to make them suitable for the needed attack missions. For a decade, the company had been totally rebuilding Invaders as corporate aircraft. Prior to the coming of the Lear Jet and Jet Star, there was a thriving community of aircraft modifiers that turned aircraft like Lockheed Venturas/Lodestars and Invaders into high-speed corporate transports. So, the USAF’s choice of On Mark was logical: The company knew the B-26 well and had the capabilities to quickly engineer changes in the aircraft.
Shortly after beginning to work in Laos, the airplane was renamed A-26A because the country wouldn’t allow bomber aircraft to be based there.
The goal was to modify existing airframes and develop an aircraft that could deliver much more ordnance on target in the dark than the original Invaders. The wings were totally remanufactured and strengthened to carry hard points nearly all the way to the newly installed tip tanks, giving the airplane the ability to carry bombs, rockets, napalm, or anything else the mission required. The net result was an aircraft that reportedly could carry 12,000 pounds of ordnance (including 8,000 pounds on the wings alone!) versus the 4,800 pounds of the B-17 during WWII. The horsepower in each engine was boosted to 2,500.
At the same time that the aircraft was made increasingly lethal, some of them were theoretically made less noticeable by removing the ordnance mounts on five of them and painting them in civilian freight company schemes. Based in Panama, they were equipped with the latest in surveillance photo and electronic equipment, and they surveyed large areas of South and Central American gathering information.
As of now, there only five K models reported to be in existence. Four are in museums, and Special Kay is the sole flying survivor.
Budd Davisson, EAA 22483, is an aeronautical engineer, has flown more than 300 different types of aircraft, and has published four books and more than 4,000 articles. He is editor-in-chief of Flight Journal magazine and a flight instructor primarily in Pitts/tailwheel aircraft. He is a regular contributor to EAA’s magazines.