Please help to Id. this Douglas A-26 Invader

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13 years 2 months

Posts: 559

What I just know was the ‘K’ model which with 8 nose gun and 8 weapon stations under wing but belly-turret removed.
However, I also found a model like this, seems all firepower of ‘K’ equipped with even belly-turret.
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17 years 4 months

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This isn't a K (counter-Invader) this is an A-26B 554th BS, 9th Air Force

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19 years 5 months

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The solid "gun" nose makes it a A-26B. Specifically a A-26B-DT (Douglas Tulsa)...exactly 100 units from the end of production of that model.
"Jack Ruskin" is correct, the (by then re-designated B-26K only to be re-re-designated back to A-26 in 1966) was the version modernized circa 1964 for use in Vietnam. The "K" had only fixed guns, all turrets were deleted.

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18 years 10 months

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1943 USAAF Serial Numbers (43-5109 to 43-52437)
43-22350/22399 Douglas A-26B-15-DT Invader
22366 delivered to USAAF Oct 11, 1944. Dropped from inventory as surplus Mar 1951

The A-26B in your photo has 6 nose .50mgs, not 8.

Douglas A-26B Invader

A new all-purpose nose was installed beginning with the A-26B-10-DL. Initially, the USAAF was undecided about exactly what armament this version should carry. As originally planned, it was expected that the A-26B would be fitted with a variety of alternate solid nose sections, and that one deemed to the best would be selected. Options that were tested on early A-26Bs included one 75-mm cannon to starboard and two 0.50-inch machine guns to port, one 75-mm cannon to starboard and one 37-mm cannon to port, 2 37-mm cannon with one on each side of the nose, or one 37 mm cannon to starboard and two 0.50-inch machine guns to port; four 0.50-inch guns starboard and one 37-mm cannon to port; or four 0.50-inch guns to starboard and two 0.50-in guns to port. Eventually at the end of 1944, the USAAF finally made up its mind and decided that the solid-nosed A-26B would have six machine guns. with 400 rounds per gun. The guns in the two turrets had 500 rounds each.

Beginning with the A-26B-15, the forward-firing armament could be supplemented by eight 0.50-inch guns mounted in four twin packages underneath the outer wing panels.

Note that the presence of the under-wing guns confirms that this is a 6-gun nose.

The forward-firing armament of the early A-26B was found to be insufficient, especially in the Pacific theatre. Beginning with the A-26B-50-DL production block, a new eight-gun nose was fitted, and six internally-mounted 0.50-inch guns were mounted in the outer wing panels so that bombs or rockets could be carried underneath the wings. However, the eight-gun nose and the internal wing guns were often retrofitted to earlier A-26B versions, so the mere presence of these features cannot be used as a positive identification feature.

In June of 1948, the A-26B was redesignated B-26B. There was no danger of confusion with the Martin B-26 Marauder, since that aircraft was by that time out of service.

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13 years 2 months

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The following question is that Doese the A-26Bs have capability to fix 8 pylons under wing?

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18 years 10 months

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No, the A-26B had 2 ordnance mounting positions under each outer wing, for a total of 4. Each mount could carry 500lb, for a total external wing load of 2,000 lb.
The 8-wing-gun load was a twin-pack on each of the 4 mounting positions.

The A-26C was identical to the B except for the plexiglass nose with only 2 .50MGs.

The 8 underwing pylons were unique to the B-26K conversions, which were built from 1962 on. These pylons could carry 1,000 lb each, for a total external wing load of 8,000 lb.

Note that the in-wing guns and both the ventral and dorsal turrets were deleted, leaving only the 8 nose-guns.

In May 1966 it was decided to base B-26Ks in northern Thailand... but since at that time Thailand didn't want "bomber" aircraft based there, the B-26Ks were redesignated as A-26As!

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4 years 5 months

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That's not quite correct. The A-26B could fit as many as 7 hardpoints under each wing, for a total of 14. Mostly those hardpoints were used for 5" HVARs. This was a common setup in the Pacific at the end of the war, during the Occupation of Japan, and on into Korea.  If they didn't have 7x rockets per wing, they would often carry 4x rockets and 1 Napalm bomb per wing. 

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