Subject: Bomber Series--Martin XB-16

From: [email-masked]
Date: 5 Jul 94 16:25:48 GMT

>From [email-masked]

In April 14, 1934, the Army Air Corps issued a request for a long-range 
bomber.  A 5000 mile range with a 2000-pound bombload was envisaged.  

The Glenn L. Martin Company of Baltimore, Maryland submitted its 
Model 145 in response to this request.  This design was in competition 
with the Boeing Model 294 project which eventually emerged as the 
XB-15.  Originally, the Model 145 was to have been very similar to the 
Boeing Model 294, being a large cantilever monoplane powered by four 
Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled V-12 engines.  

On May 12, 1934, the Chief of Staff authorized negotiations with both 
Boeing and Martin for preliminary designs.  In the meantime, the 
Martin design had undergone a major redesign, having been enlarged to 
a 173-foot wingspan.  Six Allison V-1710-2 engines were to have been 
utilized, four of them operating as tractors and two as pushers.  Twin 
rudders were to have been mounted behind two tail booms.  A tricycle 
landing gear was to be used.  The maximum weight was to have been 
105,000 pounds.  

The Martin XB-16 was considered as being too large and expensive, and 
the project was cancelled before anything could be built. 

Sources: 

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Edition, Doubleday, 1982.

  U.S. Army Aircraft, 1908-1946, James C. Fahey

Joe Baugher				AT&T Bell Laboratories
1000 E. Warrenville Road		Naperville, Illinois 60566-7013