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A/B-26 Invader Illustrated Kindle Edition
The Douglas A-26 Invader was at the apogee of twin-engine medium bomber development in World War II. It embodied that old aircraft design maxim; “If it looks good, it will fly good!”. It’s slim, sleek fuselage and broad, high-dihedral wings mounted the most powerful radial engines used in a medium bomber of the era. When it became the “B-26”, it was often confused with the Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber….confused in name only. The Invader was 70mph faster, and could carry twice as much bomb load higher, if not farther than the other B-26….and it was prettier! (Another popular aphorism asserts that “pretty is as pretty does”, and the Douglas Invader certainly was that.) Confirming its superiority, it remained in active USAF service until 1972, fighting in 3 American wars and several conflicts fought by nations who bought surplus WWII Invaders. Many years ago, I painted box art for Monogram Models, and one of the illustrations I did was the B-26 Invader. In 1948 the A-26 morphed into the B-26, and since the original B-26 Marauder was no longer operational, USAF (also newly created) was unconcerned with any possible mixup.
The Monogram box copy for the B-26 Invader included this description of the Invader; “Invader” – best attack bomber of WWII-saw action in the E.T.O. as A-26. Five years later when North Korea “blitzed”the South, “Invaders” redesignated B-26 were still first line. With a devasting armament of eighteen .50 cal. machine guns, fourteen rockets, napalm plus internal bomb load, powered by 18 cylinder double row Pratt and Whitney radials, the thoroughbred saw extensive action as night intruder and fearsome ground support bomber.” .
When that was written, the B-26 had yet to see widely acknowledged service in the Vietnam War, it’s third war in a long career which spanned almost 30 years of combat, first in Europe and the Pacific in WWII, then with the French in Vietnam, USAF in Korea, and again with the South Vietnamese Air Force and USAF in Vietnam, then with several South and Central American air forces, and with mercenaries in the third world. By far, the greatest collection of Invader color images will be private ownership, and the Invader was a popular candidate of high-speed executive travel in the immediate post-WWII years, so you’ll see a lot of those airplanes herein.
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 23, 2024
- File size44084 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B0CY564GLX
- Publisher : Aviation Art, Inc (April 23, 2024)
- Publication date : April 23, 2024
- Language : English
- File size : 44084 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Not enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Not Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Sticky notes : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #266,408 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
About the author
Lou Drendel is a world-renowned aviation artist. His paintings have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Time-Life Publications, Berkely Books, The Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, EAA Warbirds Magazine, and in the 60+ books he has authored on military aviation for Squadron/Signal Publications and for ARCO Publishers. He has also authored and published “The Lima Lima Flight Team: The Life and Times of the World’s First Civilian six-Ship Formation Aerobatic Team”, and several eBooks in "The Illustrated Series" on military aircraft. Lou is a founding member of the famous Lima Lima Flight Team, where he flew both leadership positions. (Team Lead and Solo Lead.) He has logged over 3,900 hours in the T-34 Mentor and served as president of the national T-34 Association. He is a Life Member of EAA and a former director of the EAA Warbirds of America. His “Flyers Series” of paintings for American Flyers website celebrates famous aviators and famous aircraft. He is the current historian of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association aka: "River Rats". His own website www.aviation-art.net features a wide variety of aircraft paintings, reflecting almost 50 years of work. Lou and wife Carol live in Venice, Florida.
The Illustrated Series
The Illustrated series of military aircraft was created to continue a format which I had used successfully in publishing over 40 “In Action” books for Squadron/Signal Publications. That series had been created to showcase operational details of the aircraft, and in spite of the name of the series, did not usually include personal narratives from the pilots who flew those airplanes. In a departure from that format, Jerry Campbell, the original publisher, allowed me to include those narratives, and when the personal narratives sections threatened to overwhelm the “nuts and bolts” aspect, he created a whole new series of books, which he entitled “Modern Military Aircraft” and “Vietnam Studies”, which included best sellers like “…..And Kill Migs!”.
Jerry Campbell sold Squadron/Signal and retired several years ago. The new owners of Squadron/Signal have gradually changed the format to “picture books” which minimize text, while attempting to tell the story with photo captions. I have always tried to adapt to the wishes of the publisher. (I forsook my new, and very expensive, IBM Selectric Typewriter when Jerry insisted I begin writing on an Apple II Computer.) However, this latest adaptation goes against my basic instinct for telling the story.
I have never forgotten what my first publisher, Len Morgan once said when advising me on style. He said; “People want to read about people.” So, in a case of history repeating itself, the “Illustrated Series” will not just be “nuts and bolts”, but, hopefully, will include many narratives from those who were intimately involved with the airplane, as pilots, designers, or maintainers.
The print format established for the “In Action” books was landscape, which seemed ideally suited for publishing aircraft pictures, since airplanes are usually shown in profile. My initial “Illustrated Series” books copied this format, and were published as eBooks, on both the iBooks and Kindle online book stores. Amazon.com, the Kindle publisher, now will do print books (paperbacks) on demand, which means no inventory for the publisher. Their print quality has so far been proven to be very good, rivaling that which is put out by traditional print publishers. Unfortunately, they do not support landscape format, so my print Illustrated Series books will be done in portrait format.
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