Beech XA-38 Grizzly    43-14407  /  43-14406

                                 

                                       Here are the only two Beech XA-38 Grizzlies ever constructed, up on a photo-op sortie in
                                       1944.   The aircraft was designed as a tank-buster armed with a 75mm cannon in the nose,
                                       along with a couple of remotely controlled ventral and dorsal turrets containing twin 50 mm
                                       machine guns.   These were controlled by a gunner/observer positioned in the rear cockpit
                                       and aimed through telescopic sights.  Unfortunately for Beech, by the time the aircraft had
                                       completed its teething trials, the war was coming to an end, and this, plus the fact that its
                                       Wright R-3350 engines were the same as those used in the B-29 which had priority on them,
                                       meant that the Beech machine was never put into production.  All in all it was a good aircraft
                                       which appeared on the scene too late to be exploited.