Length: 17"
Wingspan:18"
Scale: 1/41
Includes desk stand.
The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company.
The first US medium bomber used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe. The plane distinguished itself as "the chief bombardment weapon on the Western Front" according to an United States Army Air Forces dispatch from 1946, and later variants maintained the lowest loss record of any U.S. combat aircraft during World War II. Its late-war loss record stands in sharp contrast to its unofficial nickname "The Widowmaker" Ñ earned due to early models' high rate of accidents during takeoff.
A total of 5,288 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 March 1939, the United States Army Air Corps issued Circular Proposal 39-640, a specification for a twin-engined medium bomber, demanding a maximum speed of 350 mph (563 km/h), a range of 3,000 mi (4,830 km)and a bomb-load of 2,000 lb (900 kg). On 5 July 1939, the Glenn L. Martin Company submitted its design, produced by a team lead by Peyton M. Magruder, to meet the requirement, the Martin Model 179. Martin's design was evaluated as superior to the other proposals and was awarded a contract for 201 aircraft, to be designated B-26. The B-26 went from paper concept to an operational bomber in approximately two years. Additional orders for a further 930 B-26s followed in September 1940, still prior to the first flight of the type.
The B-26 was a shoulder-winged monoplane of all metal construction, fitted with a tricycle undercarriage. It had a streamlined, circular section fuselage, housing the crew, consisting of a bombardier in the nose (who was armed with a .30 in (7.62 mm) machine gun, a pilot and co-pilot sitting side-by side, with positions for radio-operator and navigator behind the pilots. A gunner manned a dorsal turret armed with two .5 in (12.7 mm) machine guns (the first powered dorsal turret to be fitted to a US bomber), while an additional .30 in machine gun was fitted in the tail. Two bomb-bays were fitted mid-fuselage, capable of carrying 5,800 lb (2,600 kg) of bombs, although in practice, such a bombload reduced range too much, with the aft bomb-bay usually fitted with additional fuel tanks. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engines in nacelles slung under the wing, driving four-bladed propellers. The wings were of low aspect ratio and relatively small area for an aircraft of its weight, giving the required high performance, but also resulting in a wing loading, which at 53 lb/sq ft (2.2 kg/m_) for the initial versions, was the highest of any aircraft accepted for service by the Army Air Force at the time.
The first B-26, with Martin test pilot William K. "Ken" Ebel at the controls, flew on 25 November 1940 and was effectively the prototype. Deliveries to the U.S. Army Air Corps began in February 1941 with the second aircraft, 40-1362. In March 1941, the Army Air Corps started Accelerated Service Testing of the B-26 at Patterson Field, Ohio.
The Martin electric turret was retrofitted to some of the first B-26s. Martin began testing a taller vertical stabilizer and revised tail gunner's position in 1941.
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