The XA-26D-DL served as a prototype for the proposed A-26D version of the Invader which was to have succeeded the A-26B on the Long Beach production line. The XA-26D-DL was powered by two Chevrolet-built R-2800-83 engines and featured a nose with eight 0.50-inch machine guns and a wing with six 0.50-inch guns.
I have records of three A-26Bs that were converted to XA-26D:
44-34776 factory completed 14 August 1945, accepted and delivered as A-26B 15 March 1946, often reported as another XA-26D prototype. A note on the record states 44-34776 was to be scrapped but was exchanged for 44-35567 which was accepted as an A-26C 28 April, delivered 11 May, to modification centre 8 August, departed the centre 13 September 1945
41-39543, accepted and delivered as A-26B 20 January, redelivered 6 November 1945, Assignment/Project number DOM791D, reported became XA-26D prototype
44-34100, accepted and delivered as A-26B 31 January, redelivered 1 November 1945, Assignment/Project number DOM791D, reported became XA-26D prototyp
The contract for 750 A-26Ds was cancelled after V-J Day. However, the eight-gun nose tested on the XA-26D was later adopted for the B-series and the six-gun wing was adopted for both the B and the C series.
Sources:
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United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
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McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920: Volume I, Rene J. Francillon,
Naval Institute Press, 1988.
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American Combat Planes, Third Enlarged Edition, Ray Wagner,
Doubleday, 1982.
- E-mail from Geoffrey Sinclair on 44-34100, 41-34943, 44-34776
