Мартин XB-33: Американский бомбардировщик, так и не взлетевший.

American bomber project

The Martin XB 33 Super Marauder was a proposed World War II American bomber aircraft. It was designed by the Glenn L. Martin Company as the Martin Model 190 and was a high altitude derivative of the company's B 26 Marauder. Two different designs were developed, first as a twin engined aircraft and then as a four engined aircraft. The four engined version was ordered by the United States Army Air Forces, but the program was cancelled before any aircraft were built.

The first version of the B 33 design, the XB 33, was a twin tailed medium bomber with two Wright R 3350 engines and pressurised crew compartments; its design began in 1940. It would carry around 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) of bombs. Soon after design of the XB 33 began it became clear that a twin engined aircraft would not achieve the performance requested by the army. The company moved on to developing a larger four engined design, the XB 33A.

Following the abandonment of the original twin engined design, the company continued to design a larger four engined aircraft, and two prototypes were ordered by the USAAF as the XB 33A; its bombload was to have been 12,000 lb (5,443 kg), as much as that of the B 24 Liberator, the heaviest US bomber flown in combat prior to the B 29. The original XB 33 design was to have been powered by the R 3350, the redesigned XB 33A was to have used Wright R 2600 engines. The main reason for this was the demand for R 3350s for the B 29, one of the most highly valued projects of the Army Air Forces. On January 17, 1942, the USAAF placed an order for 400 B 33As, to be built at the government owned plant in Omaha, Nebraska, operated by Martin. On November 25, 1942, the project was cancelled to allow the Omaha plant to concentrate on manufacturing B 29s.