Out of sheer curiosity, I investigated yesterday evening to check if the "real deal" of medium bombers of the USAAF in ETO, aka the Martin Marauder, could have been used for a movie in 1978, and filmed in flight. The answer is no: there was no flyable B-26 "Marauder" anywhere in the world in 1978, so no-one could have thought about filming at least one, for "historical accuracy" for a movie in the ETO. The Confederate Air Force one, 41-35071, "Carolyn" (= N5546N), a B-26C, became airworthy again in 1984 "only"; it crashed unfortunately, in Sept. 26th, 1995. So it could not have been airworthy in 1978. Neither could David Tallichet's earlier version, 40-1464, which became airworthy again only in 1992. It seems that there are only seven "Marauders" still in existence today. Two of these are ex-Free French Air Force, later "Armée de l'Air" B-26G, that is, the later version with the higher incidence wing: 44-68219 now visible at the Utah Beach Museum, France; on loan from the "Musée de l'Air" in Le Bourget, to which it belongs. 43-34581, at the national Museum of USAF, Wright Patterson. Of course, the most famous of the breed is "Flak Bait", B-26B 41-31773, in the Smithonian establishment in Washington DC. When I saw her there in 2010, she was still unrestored, and cut in different sections: you could "enter" the forward fuselage. I understand she is been put back together these days (?) Rgds
Yes Jim, it is indeed: see entry 1. in the following link: https://www.39thsquadronmarauders.org.uk/page57.html Rgds
Here's an except from a letter from a former B-26 pilot on Carolyn's fatal crash. At bottom. https://www.387bg.com/Aircraft/B-26 Carolyn.htm They were tricky on landing and takeoff. Also, possibly water in the fuel. The 'Confederate Air Force' name was changed to 'Commemorative Air Force' after that.
Here is a photo of the B-26 at Fantasy of Flight, taken in a very crowded hangar in 2005. I thought I had pictures of the front section of "Flak Bait" taken in Washington in 2004 but cannot find them just now. Image Unavailable, Please Login
That Marauder, 40-1464, is all the more important, because it is the ONLY one remaining with the original characteristics of the type: short wings (enlarged later to lower the stalling speed and get better lift; and then further on the B-26G version: given more incidence, that is, "leading edge tilted upwards") and short fin. Rgds
Awesome! This thread has answered a question I've had for over fifty years. When we were stationed in Panama from '64-'67 there were twin engine WW II bombers flying overhead everyday, and I couldn't remember what they were, but they had tip tanks. I remembered it sounding like "omark" but that got me nowhere with Google. It was On Mark! These puppies: Image Unavailable, Please Login The sound they made flying by was amazing. My dad was flying C-46's and C-47's at the time.
Well, I was - happily - wrong: there are FOUR short wing/short fin survivors: Besides 40-1464, discussed above There is also 40-1459 Charley's Jewel at the MAPS Air Museum in Akron (Ohio) Two others are under restoration: 40-1370 – for display at Hill Aerospace Museum, Hill AFB, Utah 40-1501 – at the Pima Air and Space Museum, for display by David Tallichet’s Military Aircraft Restoration Corporation of Anaheil, California Rgds
I hope to be able to see her complete in a not-too-distant future (?) depends on the time it will take I guess. I understand they intend to preserve her in her original state and paint as much as possible ("Dans son jus", as we say in French, meaning "untouched" - more or less tranlated as: "in her juice"; can be applied to cars too...) Rgds
Well, the B-26 "Marauder", A-26 as illustrated and the C-46 your dad was flying shared the same engines: the exceptional P&W R-2800. Rgds
Yeah, but the C-46's were slow and heavy. They did not sound much like the On Marks zipping overhead. We had a Cabin Waco with a small radial. It was a pretty amazing aircraft. I basically grew up in the thing.
Well George, growing up behind a radial engine...there are worse environments for growing up indeed. It gave you the engine fever, I guess. Grewing up in the east of France, close to the german border, during the seventies, the aeroplane I saw most often was the F-104, the "zipper"; many were CF-104, actually, as the Canadians bases were just the other side of the border. And there were NO minimum heights at the time, in the middle of the Cold War, so some of these guys were flying really low. I still have a special emotion for the F-104. And yes, the C-46 is a big aeroplane; I seem to recall that it was nicknamed "the whale"; but I like it a lot, because, jsut as the "Marauder" had a cigar (or torpedo) shape, the C-46 was streamlined... Rgds
I am no closer to finding out the identity of the Dolhem/Pironi aircraft, or even in finding out if it was an A-26 (B-26) or B-25. However, it seems as I initially thought that it was not a Martin B-26 Marauder. If Jose Dolhem was involved in bringing one of the above aircraft across the Atlantic (before he was taken ill) for the filming of Hanover Street, had he and/or Pironi bought one of them? The history I have seen for each of the aircraft suggests not but...
My dad started off in P-47D's in WW II, then L-20's when he was recalled during Korea. They put him in T-33's at the USAF academy, but he really loved aircraft with radials, so he went to the Air Commandos and the C-46/C-47 stint. Then, after several years flying C-141's he got a chance to fly C-123's for the CIA and jumped at the chance. Radials are just perfect engines.
I think you can indeed rule out the original B-26, alias the Martin Marauder. First and foremost, none was flyable at the time, and none was even close to be made flyable; it was (and remains) a very, very rare aircraft and furthermore, it always had the reputation of being difficult, or even dangerous, to fly. Question is, would it have been a B-25 or a Douglas B-26 (ex A-26)? To me, but it is only a guess: a Douglas A-26/B-26 would have made more sense, because it was a better performer than a B-25, speed-wise. It had an average of about 60 mph advantage over a B-25, depending on the variant, and if you want to race the beast, that's a margin that counts. Now, identifying WHICH B-26 it could have been is a much more difficult matter; actually, I understand that we are not even sure that they actually started to try to identify one suitable for the task? Rgds
Yes Jim, I agree. I have a list of the flyable aircrafts, but it wouldn't say which one it was, as it is the "Wardbird" annuary of 1990 or so, so too late (Remember the "Wardbird" revue of the late 1980s / early 1990, which lasted for about 50 issues?). I shall browse through it nevertheless, to see if any ownership by Dolhem or Pironi is recorded. Furthermore: There was some know-how, parts, etc... in France about the P&W R-2800 during the eighties: that engine was still flying, powering the Canadairs fire-bombers; had powered many civilians types not so long ago, so there was a pool of knowledge, parts, capable mechanicians, etc...there were still some A-26 in the country, even if none was flyable (there are still four at least today); the plane served during the 1950 and early 1960 with the Armée de l'Air (some are to be seen very briefly in "Le Train" from John Frankenheimer, which was directed in 1963) The Wright R-2600 was not flying at the time in France; its days were gone, the pool of parts, knowledge, etc was smaller; and there was no B-25 in the country: it flew with the Free French during the second world war, but never here in France with the Armée de l'Air. And the B-25 was slower, it wouldn't have been a good candidate for a race. Rgds
Lots of information about the owners of the airworthy A-26s on this site: http://napoleon130.tripod.com/id712.html Rgds
Nerofer. That looks like a wonderful website that should keep me occupied for a few hours. Hopefully it will provide me with more information than the online warbirds directory I usually go to. Although I had considered the B-25 an unlikely race plane, the mention of Jose Dolhem in the film and article had made me wonder. The Didier Pironi book says that Dolhem and Pironi owned the aircraft and that they were in the process of removing the armament when they changed their plans. This could be conjecture although the author does appear to have had access to information from their family. Robert
In the meantime, I have just checked quickly my "Wardbirds Worldwide Directory", paper edition, 3rd edition, 1996. There are 244 A-26/B-26 "Invaders" listed, with their known successive owners. None list Dolhem/Pironi as known owners. Of course, that doesn't rule it out completly. They might have formed a company, and it would be recorded under that name, or the ownership might have been short and stayed unrecorded, etc... Rgds
I love the OnMark airplanes! They are just bad-ass. I particularly like the one in Seattle-- I just really appreciate airplanes and cars which just keep on doing their job, and doing it well. The OnMark was designed to be fast, stylish transportation, and that's what that one still does today. The C-46 is amazingly large. Until I saw one in person, I thought it was sort of a slightly different DC-3, but if you see them together you realize how much larger the C-46 is.
I was going to say the exactly the same thing... they are huge, much bigger than than the Skytrain. There were about 10,000 C-47s; about 3,000+ C-46s (Approx 10' greater span and 12' longer. Greater diameter.) 1,200 hp engines vs. 2,000 hp engines that were a bit tempermental.
