Douglas A26 to be restored to fly in NSW

At Wedderburn NSW a dormant Douglas A-26C-25-DT Invader project will shortly be coming back to life under the watchful eye of experienced aircraft restorer Richard Thompson. The aircraft is currently stored at Bankstown airport but will shortly be making its way to Wedderburn, NSW. Richard acquired the aircraft (which was previously with the Australian Aviation Museum, Bankstown Airport NSW until it closed and the collection dispersed) recently.

Richard has previously been involved in the restoration of Twin Pioneer VH-EVB, so is an old hand at restoration. It is intended to restore the aircraft to airworthy standard and operate it out of Wedderburn where Richard’s aircraft are based. Although the A26 is a fairly straightforward aircraft (and thanks to its use as a Firebomber until 2005 there are a lot of parts and engines available), any WWII warbird restoration is a big task. Accordingly there is no end date and it will be finished when it’s ready! Luckily the aircraft appears at this stage to be in very good structural condition. This particular aircraft had been utilized as a Firebomber in Canada and the USA and as such when it arrived in Australia in September 2009 it was largely stripped of all its military equipment and systems so the restoration effort will not only include repairing the airframe but also locating and refitting all of the military equipment and systems after refurbishing them.

Douglas A-26C-25-DT Invader History

Constructed as an A-26C-25-DT by Douglas at Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA and accepted by the USAAF on the 14th February 1945, the aircraft was taken on Charge with the United States Army Air Force on 17^th February 1945 with s/n 43-22653 and departed from Tulsa on that day in transit through Dallas-Love Army Airfield, Texas, then Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, arriving at Morrison Army Airfield, Florida on the 1^st of March 1945. The aircraft departed for Europe from Florida on the 4^th of March 1945.

This is a genuine operational WWII Warbird having flown missions over Germany in 1945 coded ‘CP2’ of the 572nd Bomb Sqn of the 391st Bomb Grp, as based at Nordholz, Germany in May 1945. It was the last Invader received by the 391st. They transitioned from B26 to A26 in the first week of March 45 at Y29 Asch in Belgium. The aircraft flew its Ist mission on the 21^st April 1945 against the marshalling yard at Attnang-Puchheim. On 26^th it bombed Plattling airfield and on the 3rd May 1945 it attacked Stod ammunition plant in Czechoslovakia which was its last mission of WW2.

The A26  returned to USA on the 20th August 1945 when it went to Hobbs Field – 4160th Base Unit via Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia (For storage) USAAF, Air Technical Service Command, 4255th Base Unit, Grenada Army Airfield, Mississippi (For storage again) finally arriving at USAAF, Air Technical Service Command, 4160th Base Unit, Hobbs Army Airfield, New Mexico (again For storage). She then went to McLellan AFB – 4127th Base Unit.

Transferred to National Guard 11 Sep 1947. (Gore Field, MT – now known as Malmstrom AFB) and then it was assigned to the 186th Fighter-Bomber Squadron of the Montana ANG. Following on from that it was assigned to the Wyoming National Guard at Cheyenne National Guard Base. It was assigned the 187th Fighter Squadron and while there it was converted into a TB-26 trainer.

On the 15th June 1951 it was assigned to Tactical Airlift Command at George AFB, CA then passing on the 10th August 1952 to the 4th Tow Target Squadron at George AFB and then to the 1st Tow Target Squadron.  Finally in August 1958 the aircraft was struck from record and authorized for reclamation (scrapping), and sent to Davis Monthan boneyard.

Postwar the aircraft was like hundreds of her type placed into long term storage until a new use was found or scrapping. 43-22653 was more fortunate than most and after a long time parked in the desert she was “rescued “to be part of the new Firebomber industry in 1963. The A26 was sold to Idaho Air Tankers, Boise Idaho and given the USA Civil registration c/r N9402Z and operated as fire service tail number#26 with a fleet of other A26s as well as the usual motley crew of piston engined Warbirds.

The A26 was a favorite of Firebomber companies in the early days of the industry as it was maneuverable, fast and had twin engines in case of a failure; it also handled well and could carry a reasonable payload. For the Firebomber role all of the excess military equipment was stripped out of the airframe and as much weight as possible was removed. For the role it was to serve a large belly tank with modified bomb bay doors was fitted together with better radios and other civil equipment – its simple role being to be a water/retardant tanker. The A26 was well liked by its crews as it was stable and robust.

In 1966 this aircraft was sold on to Reeder Flying Service, Twin Falls Idaho again as tanker #D26 and served on with them until 1981 when it moved to Canada and was registered there as C-GPTW to Air Spray (1967) Ltd, based at Red Deer Alberta still with tail No 26. and remained in the tanker role at Red Deer until withdrawn from use in 2005. By then the A26 along with most tired piston engine types were withdrawn after a series of tragic accidents.

The A26 was then stored in the open at Red Deer and eventually in 2008 it was sold to Nick Leach of Heavy Lift Cargo Airlines and was then dismantled for shipment to Australia which occurred in 2009 when it arrived at Bankstown in September of that year and was then reassembled. The plan had been to restore the A26 to flight and a considerable amount of preliminary work was done, however the restoration stalled and the aircraft was stored/displayed at the Australian Aviation Museum, Bankstown Airport NSW from 2012 until the Museum ceased operation in 2017 when it was stored outside on the former Museum tarmac.

In October 2019 the aircraft was acquired by Richard Thompson and will soon be moving to his base at Wedderburn NSW for a full restoration to airworthy condition. As we stated earlier this is a good airframe and in very restorable condition, the A26 being a type that is still fairly numerous and with good spares and engine support.

We spoke to Richard about the restoration and he is full of enthusiasm for the project and the aircraft in particular, given his track record in restoration of large multi engine aircraft there can be no doubt that this aircraft cannot be in better hands.

Warbirds Online looks forward to continuing to monitor progress on this great aircraft until the day it flies again. The A26 is a powerful performer and will be a real asset to the Warbird movement in Australia.

Warbirds Online thanks Richard Thompson for his help in compiling this article.

© John Parker 2020