Posted on 02/17/2006 6:07:37 PM PST by 45Auto
Not being a pilot I could not understand all of it, but the guts and adaptability of the pilots and crew cheifs made it work.
He lost an engine but managed to get back to England. He saw a lone fighter coming at him and knew he was done for with only one engine. Fortunately it was a Spitfire and it flew with him back to the English coast.
Martin B-26 Marauder
Nicknames: Widow-Maker; The Flying Coffin; B-Dash-Crash; The Flying Prostitute; The Baltimore Whore (The last two because it had no visible means of support; "Baltimore" because the Martin Company was located there.)
The above is from the web. I always liked the B-26.
They made B-26's at the old Ford Willow Springs plant during the War. B-25's and F-86's were made at the old GM Fairfax Plant in Kansas City.
Nice pic. P-47D. "Jug".
My wallpaper is a big pic of a P-47 "Razorback".
My favorite WWII fighter.
I've always thought the Marauder as one of the best looking aircraft of all time.
My dad was an engineer-gunner on B-26s with the 319th BG in both europe and the pacific. He believed them to be the best aircraft of the war, light, fast and accurate because they could go in low level.
The Martin B26 was extremely dangerous during takeoff. If you lost an engine you were done and the had problems with the engine and props during takeoff. The last flying B26 went down 5 to 10 years ago. Lost an engine on takeoff, none survived.
I made a pilgramage to that airfield. The main building and some other structures are still there and it's like stepping back into time.
I was on the beach in Pinellas the other day, and someone was flying a B25 Mitchell up and down the beach. Those old engines were the throatiest, coolest things I've heard in a long time. Bautiful aircraft.
I go to airshows mainly to see the WWII aircraft. Our country had many great ones, and brave pilots and crew to fly and man them.
My uncle dropped paratroopers out of a C-47 during the Invasion of Normandy and the Invasion of Holland. He was a crew chief, not a pilot. Many of those aircraft were shot down.
I see you are a big fan too. Way to go!
the failure of the pilot to maintain minimum airspeed for flight resulting in an inadvertent stall/spin. Factors were the loss of power for undetermined reasons, and the pilot's lack of recent flight experience in the aircraft.
My Dad, an ATC pilot, regarded the Martin B26 as a good plane with a vicious stall. He flew them on occasion because they were very unpopular with pilots and he could frequently manage a ferry flight to achieve one of his major objectives during WWII -- getting to Florida to see his fiancee, my mom (grin).
He told a horrendous story of one flipping over with full fuel for a trans atlantic flight when it ran off the runway and into a ditch on a botched takeoff. The plane had a fuselage fuel tank. The gas filled the cockpit and before the rescue crew were able to smash the cockpit windows with an axe to drain it the pilots died of drowning/poisoning. No fire.
Nice t-shirt, by the way - I'm checking out the website next
Wish I could get a copy of that old Revell model of Flak Catcher, though...sigh
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