History

The Douglas A-26 Invader was a powerful light bomber and ground attack aircraft that served United States forces towards the end of World War II. They remained in service until the 1960s, fighting in Korea and Vietnam.

The Douglas A-26 was designed as a follow-up to the Douglas A-20 light bomber which saw extensive service during World War II.

The prototype A-26 first flew on 10 July 1942 and had excellent qualities and performance.

It had an optional solid nose filled with machine guns of a bombardier’s nose for medium altitude precision bombing.

They were first used in the Pacific in June 1944 where tests were poor and in Europe from September 1944 where they were more successful and became popular with their crews.

Eventually 2,503 were produced and the went on to serve in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

This model represents A-26B of the 670th BS, 416th BG, USAAF in December 1944.

Airfix 1/72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in January 1976.

Data

MODEL: Douglas A-26B

ROLE: light bomber and ground attack aircraft

TIME PERIOD: 1942-1970s

ENGINES: two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-71 Double Wasp radial engines of 1500kw each

WING SPAN: 21m

LENGTH: 15m

MAXIMUM TAKE OFF WEIGHT: 15,878kg

RANGE: 2,600km

CREW: 3

ARMAMENT: up to 18 12.7mm machine guns and up to 2710 kg of bombs and rockets

SCALE: 1/72

KIT:

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