Douglas A-26B Invader

09/30/2009. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Produced at Long Beach, California, USA, as a A-26B-61-DL, this aircraft was delivered to the USAAF with s/n 44-34602 on August 31, 1945. It served respectively as an A-26B, TA-26B, TB-26B, and VB-26B, till it was struck off charge on July 1, 1958. After being stored for six years at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, the aircraft was sold to Jack Lysdale Flying Service of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1964, registered as N8392H.

The following year N8392H was sold to Dean Stahmann of Stahmann Farms, Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the Aviation Division of the Rock Island Oil & Refining Company at Hutchinson, Kansas started the conversion of the military aircraft into a luxurious six-passenger corporate transport, named Monarch 26. It was fitted with a long nose, after which the aircraft received new avionics at Houston, Texas, the rear fuselage modification was done by Hamilton Aircraft at Tucson, Arizona, before the luxurious interior was fitted by Stahmann. It received its CofA on June 21, 1965.

Only four A-26s were converted into a Monarch 26:

Stahmann operated the Monarch 26 till 1984 and in 1987 it was sold to RLS 51 Ltd. of San Francisco, California, and subsequently restored to military configuration, fitted with an eight-gun nose. The aircraft was reregistered N167B on May 2, 1988, and since it has been operated by the Scandinavian Historical Flight, Oslo, Norway, although ownership switched from RLS 51 Ltd to Joda LLC of Chesterfield, Missouri on March 8, 2001. The Norwegian registration LN-IVA was reserved on January 31, 2006, but not taken up."

Read the type remarks on page 10276.