Savvy Savage. and his Durable Douglas. by Frederick A. Johnsen 18 JULY 2016 PHOTO BY SCOTT SLOCUM

Transcription

1 Savvy Savage and his Durable Douglas by Frederick A. Johnsen 18 JULY 2016 PHOTO BY SCOTT SLOCUM

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3 FREDERICK A. JOHNSEN Three flat plates extend from the A-26 when the bomb bay doors open, baffling turbulence before bomb release. Owner Tim Savage inspected the plates, just one of many military hardware artifacts this Invader retained for decades. It s one thing to restore a warbird to pristine wartime condition; it s another to leave it alone because it never lost the wartime gear. Tim Savage and his son, Job, brought their Douglas A-26 Invader bomber to AirVenture 2015 with a healthy dose of vintage equipment still installed. Future restoration efforts will complete the picture, but the rugged authenticity of the bomber is already apparent. Tim learned of the availability of the A-26 as part of the estate of the late pioneering warbird collector David Tallichet. Its postwar history includes a stint with the Nicaraguan air force starting in the 1960s, when another warbird collector traded it to that country for old fighters. Tim says the Nicaraguans kept the A-26 s bomb bay intact, with vintage racks, bomb shackles, and other gear untouched. This is a rare find, since so many postwar, civilianized A-26 fire bombers and executive transports received drastic bomb bay modifications to suit them to their new roles. Subsequent owner David Tallichet acquired this A-26 and others in a 1977 deal that gave the Nicaraguan air force some practical Cessna 172s for training. Tallichet kept the GI hardware in the bomber, and now Tim Savage is adding even more military machinery to the A-26 each off-season. The originality of this Invader becomes apparent when Tim opens the bomb bay doors to reveal original wind baffles that extend into the slipstream to block disruptive airflow and enhance the action of the bombs as they fall. A look inside the bay shows replica bombs hanging from the shackles. This isn t your father s executive A-26. Prolific and talented Douglas Aircraft designer Ed Heinemann already held the patent for that company s earlier A-20 Havoc twin-engine bomber when the U.S. Army Air Forces signaled interest in a new bomber to improve on the A-20 s performance, in view of what was unfolding in the European war by late Heinemann s earlier Douglas designs incorporated rounded wingtips and tail surfaces typical of the prewar 1930s. The angular A-26 marked a distinct aesthetic and aeronautical departure for Heinemann s team, defining the appearance of straight-wing Douglas designs for years to come. It s a look that has been kind to the A-26; threequarters of a century after it was drawn on paper, the A-26 still conveys speed even when parked and chocked. Tim is patient in his plans for the A-26. After the 2015 air show season, it was delivered to John Lane s award-winning Airpower Unlimited warbird restoration shop in Jerome, Idaho. John detailed the 20 JULY 2016

4 bomber s authentic six-gun nose with the introduction of dummy.50-caliber machine gun barrels, cooling jackets, and shrouds. In future off-seasons, operational General Electric power gun turrets will be re-introduced to this airframe. For now, the dome of the top turret mounts a pair of barrels for effect. And then it was time for maintenance and upgrades. This Invader has had a lot of hands on it in the last 70-plus years, and John started to notice things like mismatched bolts in a few places and an engine that drank 15 more gallons of avgas an hour than its counterpart on the other wing. Winter downtime saw the installation of engine carburetors with matching efficiencies, and the mounting of engine pre-oilers to distribute lubricant before starting the Pratt & Whitney R-2800s. Additionally, oil shut-off valves now help keep oil from pooling in the bottom cylinders and may make this A-26 cleaner on the ramp when it comes to oil spots. With characteristic thoroughness and thoughtfulness, John and his crew cycled the A-26 s landing gear with the bomber supported by heavy-duty jacks, as the warbird experts worked to make the gear retraction and extension even better than before. The nose wheel of the A-26 retracts first, turning 90 degrees as it moves rearward, presenting a flat surface to the wind before hiding ingeniously inside the compact fuselage. The result of the winter hiatus in Idaho is a mix of cosmetic embellishments like the nose gun barrels and maintenance accomplishments that make this A-26 that much better for the 2016 flying season. It s an ongoing restoration project and an ongoing maintenance program, John explains. John Lane has revived other warbirds that have been significantly altered over the years by previous civilian operators. The largely stock nature of Tim Savage s A-26 is a treat. I think it s cool because it s an airplane that hasn t been all butchered up, John says. I m surprised it s still a single-control airplane. Many flying Invaders have a second set of flight controls added to the cockpit; that s one alteration owner Tim contemplates as he learns to pilot his bomber in the future. John Lane s work, like that of so many who embrace warbirds, is much more than hours on a time SCOTT SLOCUM

5 During its winter stay at John Lane s Airpower Unlimited in Jerome, Idaho, Tim Savage s A-26 received dummy blast tubes and machine gun barrels in its unusual six-gun nose. Every touch enhances its wartime appearance. FREDERICK A. JOHNSEN sheet; it s a passion for history. These airplanes are very critical to keep flying, he says. John offers Tim suggestions on where money can best be spent to the greatest effect. It s about money spent in the right place, John says. Over the years for several customers, John has used that money to deliver award-winning restorations, including four EAA Golden Wrench awards for three Corsairs and a TBM Avenger. At his Airpower Unlimited shop, John s crew typically consists of eight people, craftspeople he appreciates: TYSON RININGER PHOTOS You re only as good as the people you employ, he says. Tim Savage previously owned a B-25J when his son, Job, was much younger. After selling the B-25, Tim perceived a sense of lost opportunity for Job. Tim found the A-26 and bought it as a family project. He kept it a secret from Job until the day it arrived. Job mans a table offering custom T-shirts and souvenirs for sale at planeside. His entrepreneurial spirit is a family trait; Tim is growing his successful computer consulting business along with mentoring and supporting young entrepreneurs from his location in Huntington, Indiana. Tim also brings a sense of balance to his latest warbird project. He says he may only make three or so air shows each season. This has dual effects it keeps the bomber from becoming an obsession that intrudes on family time, while the leisurely schedule ensures the plane and its systems will not wear out any time soon. Nonetheless, just to hedge for the future, Tim says he hunts for Invader parts. I ve been buying everything I can find, he says. Tim s Invader is full of surprises. While many A-26s received spar modifications that involved reinforcing the carry-through structure in the fuselage, Tim s Silver Dragon has barely visible external straps running along the undersurfaces of the wing. Research indicates the U.S. Air Force did this modification for some Central American air forces at Albrook Air Force Base, Panama, in 1964 and 1965; Silver Dragon may be the only flying Invader with this adaptation. Tim satisfies FAA requirements to inspect the wing structure with an alternative method of compliance (AMOC) that includes dye checking the carry-through structure to ensure cracks are not propagating. Talking with Tim, one gets a sense of his patient passion for this sometimes-overlooked World War II bomber. While many were converted for civilian use in the decades following the war, Tim says he can only count about a dozen flying examples today, with others slumbering in static displays or storage. When he first inspected Silver Dragon, he was impressed with its largely unmodified nature. The airframe called out for preservation and restoration. I feel an obligation to do that, he says, because this Invader is one of the few that wasn t severely modified as a surplus opportunity. I like to take old things and make them new, he says. I 22 JULY 2016

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7 PHOTO BY SCOTT SLOCUM

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9 Father and son at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh BRADY LANE A-26 INVADER HISTORY The Douglas A-26 Invader was the inspired result of discussions between the Army Air Forces and Douglas Aircraft officials in late Feedback from the European war fueled AAF desires for a new bomber to outperform the A-20 and eventually replace other twin-engine bombers in service. The design team of Ed Heinemann crafted the XA-26 to meet an early AAF goal of mounting a huge 75-mm cannon. That notion went away, but the basic lines of the bomber remained essentially unchanged through production, save for variations on removable noses for bombing or gunnery with differing configurations. One airframe change of note was the raising of the cockpit canopy above the fuselage line to give the pilots better lateral vision over the engine nacelles. The Invader s combat debut in the summer of 1944 foretold a time when the A-26 would replace the A-20, B-25, and B-26 Marauder as the only twin-engine propeller-driven bomber in the Air Force. That distinction would have to wait until war s end, but by 1948, the withdrawal of the remaining Martin B-26s saw the A-26 given the designation B-26 in postwar nomenclature. B-26 Invaders served in Korea, and variants brought war to the enemy in southeast Asia in the 1960s. Foreign air forces and covert American operators leveraged the sleek Invader for many years. In civilian service, A-26s became fast executive aircraft modified by companies like On Mark. Others were given retardant tanks for firefighting. One even flew with a fuselage-mounted jet engine as an airborne test bed in the infancy of jet power. TYSON RININGER The A-26 did more than just look fast. With a cruising speed of 284 mph, the A-26 bested combat-equipped A-20s by around 15 mph; B-25Js by more than 50 mph; and Martin B-26Gs by about 70 miles an hour. And the Invader did this at greater range than any of the other three bombers.

10 FREDERICK A. JOHNSEN Ex-Nicaraguan Air Force A-26B at Oshkosh, July think it s an undersung airplane. And that restoration will get done when it gets done; no timeline declarations are being made. It s a joke among some warbird restorers, when asked how long a project will take, to always reply: About a year. That year gets repeated over and over each time the question is asked during the many years the project actually consumes. For Tim and the handful of helpers working on Silver Dragon, the pressure is off. When the bomber is on the circuit, and not at Airpower Unlimited, There s only about five of us working on this plane, and we all have other jobs, Tim explains. Nor is he impatient to get typecertificated as a pilot in his new bomber. Tim s intention is to have John install dual controls this vintage Invader is one of the few that did not receive that mod decades ago. After the dual controls are in place he will begin the process of learning the A-26 s handling traits with a qualified pilot in the other seat. I don t feel the ego pressure to quickly fly a plane that I own, Tim says. It may take me a couple years to feel comfortable in the airplane. The colorful dragon face on the nose of Tim Savage s A-26 was scarcely a week old when the bomber taxied onto the grass parking area at Oshkosh last summer. But the bomber itself bridges seven decades. Decades that pretty much left the Invader alone, a surviving witness to a bygone era. by Jean Barbaud