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Aviation of World War II |
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A-26 "Invader"Attack aircraftDouglas![]()
Heinemann began with three options: the XA-26 (later A-26C) - a bomber with a glazed bow for the navigator-bombardier, A-26A - a night fighter with a radar in the bow and four ventral 20-mm cannons, and XA-26V with an opaque nose, which housed small arms for an assault attack. The night fighter was in production for a short time, but the bombers were massively built on Douglas assembly lines in Long Beach, California, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The A-26B had six 12.7-mm machine guns in the bow (later their number was increased to eight), remote-controlled upper and lower turrets, each with two 12.7-mm machine guns, and up to 10 or more 12.7- mm machine guns in underwing and ventral containers. Heavily armored and capable of carrying up to 1,814 kg of bombs, the A-26B, with a maximum speed of 571 km / h at an altitude of 4,570 m, was the fastest bomber of the Allies in World War II. Construction. Wing. For the first time on a medium bomber a wing with a laminar profile NAA-NACA was used (a similar profile has already been used on the P-51 Mustang). The shape of the wing is trapezoidal in plan. The main structural material is aluminum alloys. Fuel tanks were located in four sections of the two-spar wing. Oil coolers with frontal air intakes were located near the engine nacelles. The sturdy wing structure provided the Inveder with extraordinary survivability. There are cases when aircraft, which were destroyed up to 1/3 of the wing area, successfully returned from combat missions. The mechanization included four sections of double-slotted flaps that had three fixed positions: takeoff (15 o ), landing (45 o ) and retracted. Flap control is hydraulic. The landing gear of the aircraft was tricycle with a nose wheel, it had air-oil depreciation. The nose wheel is self-orienting and equipped with a "shimmy" oscillation compensator. The landing gear could rotate around its axis by 360° and retrace with a turn of the wheel 90°. The main landing gear was located behind the engines and retracted by turning back in flight. The landing gear niches were covered with fairings. The main harvesting and discharge system is hydraulic. Reserve - air. The first production aircraft were powered by Pratt and Whitney or Ford R2800-71 engines with a capacity of 2000 hp. Starting with the "Inweider" N701, R2800-79 motors with a capacity of 2370 hp were installed on the aircraft. The engines were equipped with a fire-fighting system with fuel cut-off valves. The engine hoods, which are in two halves (upper and lower), are quick-release for easy maintenance. Field replacement of engines was carried out by three technicians in one hour, due to the fact that the engine was attached to the tubular frame at six points. Approximately 1355 A-26B attack aircraft and 1091 A-26C bombers were built.
Armament. The defensive armament consisted of two General Electric remote-controlled turrets taken from a B-29 bomber, but with different profile limiters of fire. Each turret had two Browning M2 machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber, 500 rounds of ammunition per barrel. The upper turret rotated 360 0 and, if necessary, could fire forward, increasing the overall firepower of offensive weapons. The tower remote control system was developed by General Electric for the A-26 aircraft on a basis similar to the B-29 aircraft. |
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