Martin B-26 Marauder

The design of the aircraft Martin 179, developed under the direction of Peyton M. Megruder, was submitted to the Army Commission on July 5, 1939. Two months later, an order was received for 1,100 aircraft.

The first serial V-26 took off on November 25, 1940.

The B-26B version was distinguished by enhanced armor protection and improved weaponry, while the aircraft of later releases had increased wing span . Thus, they tried to reduce the landing speed, but this measure was not very effective due to the increase in the total mass of the aircraft.

The subsequent variants, B-26F and B-26G , had a wing angle of attack increased by 3.5 ° (in order to improve take-off characteristics). A total of 5157 “Marauder” aircraft were produced ^[2] .

A total of 1,883 B-26B aircraft were built at the in Baltimore , and 1235 B-26C were built in Omaha , Nebraska .

Piloting the B-26 was a tricky business for newcomers, and after a series of catastrophes, the famous expression “Every day a plane sinks in Tampa Bay” ( “One day in Tampa Bay” ; there was a McDill military airfield located near Tampa Bay, where the Marauders "). The pilots called the plane "flying coffin" and "widow" ^[3] . Senator Harry Truman tried to stop the mass production of B-26 ^[4] .

The last flightable B-26 crashed in 1995 ^[5] .

Deliveries of cars to the US Air Force began in 1941 , but they were accompanied by a number of problems and accidents during flight tests. At first, the B-26A bombers began assembling the 22nd bomber group. The group began to deploy their aircraft to Australia on the very day when hundreds of Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor .

The first military operation "Marauders" conducted in April 1942 over New Guinea . The “marauder” had combat losses of less than 1% ^[2] .

Under the Lend-Lease Agreement, the Royal British Air Force also received 522 vehicles. The first B-26s arrived in the UK in February 1943, but suffered heavy losses on their very first flights. On May 17, 1943, out of 11 aircraft that took off to strike at German targets in the Netherlands, only one returned to base ^[6] . Were serving in the Royal Air Force of Great Britain and the Air Force of the Republic of South Africa in the Mediterranean region .

According to the ACIG website, in April 1950, during the Cold War , two American B-26s were shot down by Soviet MiG-15 fighters from the Shanghai air defense force; according to Russian researchers L.Krylova and Y.Tepsurkaev, who worked with combat logs of Soviet units and evidence of Soviet veterans, Soviet fighters in China did not shoot down aircraft of the B-26 type ^{[7] [8]} .

Specifications

• Crew : 7: 2 pilot, navigator-bombardier, navigator / radio operator, 3 arrow
• Length : 17.8 m
• Wing Span: 21.65 m
• Height : 6.55 m
• Wing area: 61.1 m²
• Wing extension ratio: 7.66
• Weight empty: 11 476 kg
• Weight curb: 17,327 kg
• Engines : 2 × radial Pratt & Whitney R-2800-43 Double Wasp capacity of 1900 liters. with. ( 1,400 kW )
• Front drag coefficient at zero lifting force : 0.0314
• Equivalent area of ​​resistance: 1.92 m²

Flight characteristics

• Maximum speed : 455 km / h at an altitude of 1525 m
• Cruising speed : 358 km / h
• Landing speed: 167 km / h
• Combat radius: 1850 km
• Ferry range: 4590 km
• Practical ceiling : 6400 m
• Wing load: 228 kg / m²
• Thrust : 170 W / kg
• Aerodynamic quality : 12.0

Armament

• Machine-gun: 11 × 12.7 mm “ Browning M2 ” machine guns (fixed for front fire, on mobile mounts in the nose and middle parts of the fuselage, as well as in the dorsal and tail turret with electric drive)
• Bomb load: 1800 kg

• Construction B-26. Doc 1941 film with Russian translation
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