Martin Marauder in Action

Description

The Martin B-26 Marauder was an American World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. The first medium bomber in the Pacific theater and Aleutian Islands in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and the European Theater of Operations. The plane distinguished itself as "the chief bombardment weapon on the Western Front" according to an US Army Air Forces dispatch from 1946, and later variants maintained the lowest loss record of any combat aircraft during World War II. Its late-war loss record stands in sharp contrast to its unofficial nickname "The Widowmaker" -- earned due to early models' high rate of accidental crashes during takeoff. A total of 5288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. In 1939, the United States Army Air Corps issued a specification for a twin-engined medium bomber, Circular Proposal 39-640. Six months later, Glenn L. Martin Company presented a design to the US Army Air Corps. Peyton M. Magruder led the design team for this aircraft after Martin won the contract. This design, Martin Model 179, was accepted for production before a prototype even flew, due to the desperate need for medium bombers following the intensification of World War II in Europe. Once the first aircraft came off the production line in November 1940, Martin conducted tests, the results of which were promising. The first B <b>...</b>

Keywords

Martin, B-26, Marauder, bomber, ww2, aviation, history, aircraft

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