Martin's Overweight Flying Armory: Martin AM Mauler

In this video, we talk about the Martin AM Mauler, a late-World War 2 and post-war carrier-based attack aircraft designed in the United States Navy's effort to replace dive and torpedo bombers with a single, unifying class: the Attack class. We start by talking about the division of aircraft into different classes or classifications and why this was done more often on older aircraft. We then go into the effort to create the attack class and the planes up for consideration alongside the Mauler, which include the Curtiss XBTC, the Kaiser-Fleetwings XBTK, and the Douglas XBT2D Skyraider.

We then talk about the performance of the Mauler, its impressive array of weapons, and the annoying situation surrounding the engine used on it. It's one of two, I can say that for certain. Which one exactly is iffy. We then talk about the failure of the Mauler, both in flight and on the aircraft carriers it would be based on, that was caused, in part, by its sheer size and weight, along with the success of its competitor, the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, perhaps one of the best piston-engine aircraft ever made.