Opinions of the Martin AM Mauler

So what are people's opinions on the Martin AM Mauler?

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From the Wikipedia article it's main problems seem to have been that it's size and weight made it difficult to handle on the aircraft carriers of the day and that outweighed it's capabilities in load carrying.

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The article also mentions the Douglas Skyraider as being more reliable, but does that mean the Mauler was unreliable?

So even if the Mauler was a failure as a carrier based plane could it's impressive bomb load have made it a star as a strictly land based torpedo bomber?
 
So even if the Mauler was a failure as a carrier based plane could it's impressive bomb load have made it a star as a strictly land based torpedo bomber?

The day of the torpedo bomber was almost over, so getting it in that role is pretty unlikely I'd say. However it's large load capacity is bound to come in handy for someone. How about as a ground-attack aircraft for the US Marines? The Navy may not like the aircraft very much, so it get's shunted off to the Marine Corps squadrons. The Marines have a history of making do with whatever they get from the Navy, and find a way to get the best out of the arcraft. IOTL people were impressed with the Skyraiders capability in that role, an aircraft with 1/2 again as much ordnance load certainly wouldn't hurt.

The other possibility is to get the aircraft fobbed off on someone else as part of a military aid package - pick the right South American country and they could have been in service up to the 1980's, possibly even in the original torpedo-bomber role. The idea of these things making torpedo runs against British ships during the Falklands War is quite a striking one...
 
The problem with being a land based torpedo bomber is that the threat simply wasn't there. Additionally, there were plenty of land based B-24s and B-29s available in the same era that could haul more bombs over a longer range. The Mauler falls between those bombers and the more versatile Skyraider.
 
The other issue, from an old copy of Wings magazine from the '80s, was that the engine was somewhat tempermental. Pilots liked its load capacity: they called it "Able Mable." The Skyraider was simpler, more rugged, and more adaptable: there were AEW, COD, EW, night attack, and a few other variants built-and an ASW version was designed but not procured as the S2F Tracker was coming into service. And the powerplant was more reliable.

Main problem with USMC getting the aircraft was the limited production run: only 174 examples. Any Korean combat will generate attrition. And the U.S. was reluctant to sell strike aircraft to Latin American Navies that hadn't been built after 1945: TBMs, Hellcats, and Corsairs were most often delivered. Argentina actually requested the Skyraider in 1962, but was turned down.
 
The big issues with the plane were its size (could carry more Skyraiders on a carrier), being difficult to land, and the reliability issues- the last generation of aircraft radials both had a reputation for being temperamental- the P&W R-4360 used on the Mauler among other things was a notorious maintenance hog- changing all 56 spark plugs could take several hours, & it was easy to foul all of them requiring cleaning or replacement with a simple mistake starting the motor. (The Wright R-3350 had issues with breakdowns, mechanical unreliability, and catastrophic overheating.)
 
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