In June 1948, right after B-26 Marauder retired from the service, the Douglas Airplane Company redesigned the A-26 Invader naming it B-26 Invader. The development of the B-26 Invader basically started after the Army Air Corps’s Experimental Engineering Section at Wright Field, ordered the manufacturer to develop a new plane. It was in the year of 1940. The design that the Douglas Airplane Company suggested was quite similar to the A-20 Havoc that was produced back in 1937.
Army Air Corps’s Experimental Engineering Section asked the Douglas Airplane Company to build such a plane that will be structurally stronger and quicker than the A-20. The requirements also included that the new plane should have shorter landing distances and takeoff as part of its defensive armament. The Air Corps wanted to replace all three existing planes – the A-20, the Martin B-26 Marauder, and the North American B-25 Mitchell with the new B-26 Invader. The 3 XA-26s (extensions on A-26) were ordered in 1941.
The US Air Force
