Allied Aircraft, Inc

Allied Aircraft, Inc is not defunct. They used to flying old vintage USAF airplanes. The company had in its inventory an A-26A, serial number 64-17647. They bought this plane from the scrap yard at Davis Monthan AFB in 1976.

I did manage to track down their former Chief Test Pilot, Captain Billy Walker and we exchanged emails on 7 Jul 2020. He explained that the company has been long-closed and the records lost. He doesn't specifically remember the plane.

"I don’t have any specific information on the A-26 you are asking about (64-1767). However, if it went to Allied Aircraft, I very likely flew it. I can’t be sure as I didn’t keep records and Allied is long gone with none of their records apparently saved. Also, that was nearly a half-century ago!

I flew a lot of airplanes for Allied and, for a while, was the Chief Test Pilot. In addition to the A-26s, I flew one Navy AJ “Savage,” a bunch of Navy SNB-5’s, T-28’s, C-131s, DC-6, DC-7, and I flew one B-29 which was actually a Navy P2B-1S “Fertile Myrtle.”

Equally likely, (64-1767) was a former Korean War B-26 (B or C) converted to a much improved A-26K with upgraded Pratt & Whitney R-2800-27 engines to the CB series engines (water-methanol injection) which were some 200 more horse power with prop reversing along with DC-6 wheels and brakes. Boy Howdy was that an improvement! If it was, in fact, one of the A-26’s (re-named B-26 after the Martin B-26 was no longer in inventory) then converted to the ubiquitous “K” model then, again, redesigned “A-26A” for the SE Asia War Games. I believe there were 40 “K” models produced by On Mark Engineering in California."

He shared some war stories about his time as a pilot and then went on to explain:

"64-17647 may have, perhaps, gone to Gene Powers (Hawkins-Powers, Greybull, Wyoming). Another possibility was the late Denny Lynch in Billings, MT. Denny, a long-time friend bought his from the State of Georgia who had planned to use it as a fire bomber. Denny had thought he would as well add it to his small fleet of A-26C’s he used as Borate bombers. He never did convert the airplane and, thusly, it was saved for posterity. I was offered the opportunity to fly it, but never did (unless it was one via Allied)… I think Denny’s Invader is the only “K” Model flying. It is appropriately named “Special Kay.” Special Kay is hangared in the Vintage Flying Museum at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport in Texas."

Captain Walker is right about Denny Lynch's plane. It was serial number 64-17679 and is, in fact, "Special Kay", so its not the plane I'm looking for.

Now, my records do show that Hawkins-Powers has an A-26, but it was an older WWII version that they named "Lu Lu". When H&P went under in 2006 the plane was bought by the now-defunct Lauridsen Aviation Museum and she sits derelict at the Buckeye Municipal Airport on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona. I explained this to Captain Walker and he responded in a follow-up message:

"I do know that, in fact, Gene “Red” Powers had a B-26K/A-26A. It was in military configuration with hard points although absent the guns. He offered it to me for a flight. Alas, I let the opportunity slip by. My bad!"

I have no reason to doubt Captain Walker about H&P having an A-26A, but I personally haven't seen any records or photos of that. At this time I can't confirm or deny this statement. Even if H&P did have an A-26A as Captain Walker suggests, there's nothing to prove at this point that it was 64-17647.

I have sent an email to a museum in Montana that acquired several of H&Ps planes in the hopes that they can get me in touch with someone who might know more. I will update this page as more information becomes available.