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Responding to the US Army Air Corps need for a high speed medium bomber, the Martin Company submitted an unusual design; a cantilever shoulder wing monoplane carrying five (later seven) crewmen and entered service in 1941. The B-26 was difficult for an inexperienced pilots to handle, but once mastered was an excellent warplane that achieved good results at a low loss rate. The B-26 carried a normal bomb load of 3,000 pounds, though another 1,000 pounds could be added when fitted with special wing hard-points. Armament included eleven 12.7-mm machine guns in fixed, forward-firing, nose and waist mounts, and powered dorsal- and tail-turrets. Though its service ceiling was 19,800 feet, the Marauders primary role was close tactical ground support. As such, it was widely used in the Pacific theater and the Mediterranean by both the USAAC and the RAF, which had acquired 522 B-26s. Some of the twenty variants of this aircraft included the B-26A (increased added fuel capacity, externally mounted torpedo, system revisions and heavier armament, of which 139 were built); the B-26B (bigger engines, armament revisions and better armor protection, a 6-foot increase in wing span, taller vertical tail and more armament, of which 1,883 were built); and the B26-F (improved take-off performance and equipment changes, of which 300 were built).
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