Ex Booker A-26 Cockpit

See: http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=43492&key=0

Says one crew severely injured, other minor injuries. Cause of the accident: prop nr. 2 went into reverse on final approach.

A brief mention here:http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=128594

No fatalities -be nice to get a gun nose for her -there must be a few out in the States.

Hi David, Glad to see from the report that the pilot was ok, judging from the damage that nose wheel did to the cockpit floor, he must have had one hell of a bump. We have recently imported a bombardiers nose for her, we are returning her back to an A-26, recently we heard from the daughter of the pilot who flew 13 missions in 43-22649 during World War Two, so we now know she served with the 391st Bomb Group – it’s all coming together slowly.

Below are some photos of the nose.

Thanks again.

Dan

Hi Dave, thank you, we are lucky really to have “lumps” to work on, always admired your project though, quite a challenge but the hard work is really paying off. We are closed now until beginning of March, but just PM me if you want to come over the winter (anytime), we are still working on despite being closed, just bring a warm jacket!

Hi Dan,

Cracking job there mate! You are clearly running the right organisation to bring life back into these old relics. I can’t wait to visit and see for my self.

A brief mention here:http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=128594

No fatalities -be nice to get a gun nose for her -there must be a few out in the States.

Thanks guys, attached are some pics of the final roll-over having spent 2 years on her side, we had a purpose built stand made to fully support the section. These pics werer taken in August (playing catch up). The wheels are great, one person can push this about now.

Hi Dan,

Cracking job there mate! You are clearly running the right organisation to bring life back into these old relics. I can’t wait to visit and see for my self.

Great photos that I haven’t seen before, do we know if the pilot was ok? and what happened?

there were a couple of them at chino in the mid 80’s on the ramp I seem to remember they were water bombers? they were for sale but can’t remember the details now.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]222736[/ATTACH]Found another from a slide I took at Chino November 1978

He’s another one at Booker late 1988 [ATTACH=CONFIG]222735[/ATTACH]

The B-26 arrived at Booker on the 16/4/88 and the Dakota left in March 1994 if that helps!

brilliant job Dan, well done….i am still digging out he booker pix

will it be at the Fest????!!!!

Hi Bruce, I found this photo on the net, not sure when it was taken but sure wish we got hold of her in that condition!

Great stuff; I looked over it on a number of occasions when it was sat just a few miles from me. It really was a mess.

Thanks guys, attached are some pics of the final roll-over having spent 2 years on her side, we had a purpose built stand made to fully support the section. These pics werer taken in August (playing catch up). The wheels are great, one person can push this about now.

Well done, You have done a fantastic job, great to see the then and now photos.

TA

Nice work!

Ok, so it has been a while since I last updated the A-26 Invader Cockpit Project thread but work has been ongoing all this time. A mile stone was reached earlier this year when the wheel well (the worse area for corrosion by far) was finally completed. The wheel well was blasted back to bare metal, all the corroded sections were then cut out and repairs put in place. Everything was then etch primed and top coated. The before and after highlights the challenges we had to face and it was pretty gutty & probably on the extreme side of restoration but really there was little option. As you can see the large crease in the wheel bay area is from the aircrafts last flight when it stalled on landing, that we concluded was beyond repair!

We still have the C-119 but since it is post war, we are (when time permits) going to find it a new home, as we have a lot on the go already. We would like to get a few quid for it to help lube a few “restoration cogs” but not a huge amount.

Re the A-26, we are restoring her back to wartime spec since this fits in with the museum, the other reason is that B-26 parts are even harder to find than A-26 parts. We will however include the Vietnam side of things in the display.

Looking good, must be a quite a collection or rare US cockpits you have there now. Do you still have the C-119 cockpit or am I getting muddled up with somewhere else?
Will the 26 be retaining it’s K Vietnam markings?

As promised here are some pics of the Cockpit. You can see the amount of corrosion in the wheel well prior to some extreme conservation work, we are now just fitting in various repair patches prior to a top coat of paint, then she will be rolled back over so the canopy can be refitted.