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The A-23 Baltimore was a experimental light bomber produced by Martin. The plane was a proposed enlarged version of the A-22 Maryland and was produced for the Royal Air Force as the "Model 187 Baltimore".
The plane was also given the USAAC designation A-30 for Lend-Lease purposes. It was mostly used to destroy German U-boats - but eventually turned out to be ineffective against them and was not used after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Although the A-23 Baltimore was produced in greater numbers than any other Martin plane (except for the B-26), information about the A-23 Baltimore is scarce. There are not very many surviving examples left of the plane, even though the model was produced by the thousands.
[edit] History
The A-23 Baltimore began life as a joint project in May 1940 by the Anglo-French Purcashing Commission.When the A-23 baltimore was designed it was a very avanced for a design at the time. Back when the A-23 was designed most planes in the air forces of the world had only small biplanes.When the design was completed, thats when orders for thousands of A-23s came in. Through the years the A-23 remained an avanced design until 1935. When World War II began Britain and France thought they could use the A-23 to destroy German u-boats but when they tried that, the bomber usually found sunken ships, and rarely found any u-boats. Out of the u-boats the A-23s did find, most of them usually dived. The A-23s only sunk 3 u-boats by 1940 and by 1941 they only sunk 8 u-boats. The A-23 remained in service with the British until 1949. Then all A-23s where withdrawn from service by the end of 1949, the last one being withdrawn on December 23rd.
[edit] Specifications
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
- Guns: 6 machine guns
- Bombs: 2,220lb
[edit] Operators
[edit] External links
