Douglas Invader landing mishap
Bad luck for one of America’s most famous Douglas A-26 Invaders, N4988N ‘Special Kay’, on 10 September 2022. During a landing on its home base Meacham International Airport in Fort Worth (TX), the left main undercarriage leg folded back and took the machine off the runway.
As can be seen on the accompanying photos the left nacelle and gear are badly damaged. There was a prop strike on the left engine so there are strong doubts about the future of the port engine.
The Invader finds its home in the hangars of the Fort Worth' Vintage Flying Museum but is maintained and operated by PGM Aviation.
As an immediate reaction on the landing mishap, PGM Aviation has cancelled this and next year’s show seasons.
Built during the Second World War as an A-26 (serial 44-34198, with construction number 27477) the bomber was rebuilt by On Mark into a B-26K with the new serial 64-17679 in 1965. These heavily armed B-26Ks were used during the Vietnam War.
After the short service life the Invader was bought by Air Spray in Canada as C-GXTG, but soon sold to the USA to become a warbird.
Since 1978 the plane has been registered as N4988N. It has seen various colour schemes but in 2018 the B-26K was painted again in a Vietnam-era scheme with code ‘679/IF’ and was named ‘Special Kay’.
Later on the evening of 10 September, ‘Kay’ was lifted off the taxiway and placed nose-in to her usual place at the south-east corner of the hangar. A wing jack was placed under the left wing to support that area before inspection work started on the nacelle and left gear.
Obviously with the prop strike on the runway, the prop will have to be replaced and the engine overhauled. Neither of these are going to be cheap. Currently the most pressing matter for the VFM is to pay the two wreckers and flatbed it took to move the warbird.
It is only the start of funding of an awful lot of money needed to get ‘Kay’ flying again. With this in mind the operators will update their website called www.PGMAviation.org, in which PGM momenterally stands for: ‘Please Give Money’.
Something that we at Scramble can only encourage!
Photos: Vintage Flying Museum