soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Bill Shatzer:
> I had thought both the B-25 and the B-26 arose from the same 1939 USAAF
> specification and request for proposals and thus the two designs were
> roughly contemporaneous.

According to Wikipedia and some other site I didn't save, the first
B25 flew in August 1940, and the first B26 in November of that year.
I suppose part of my confusion is because the B25 was more-or-less a
development and refinement of
a twin-engine bomber design going back to the mid-30s, while the B26
appears to have come full-blown from the Martin designers, as you
say.

> Of course, the North American design borrowed heavily from the earlier
> NA-40B design - but then, I'd suppose that the Martin bomber borrowed
> heavily from earlier Martin studies and designs as well.

I'm glad I didn't bet any money on there being an appreciable time gap
between the one and the other.

Narr