On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 18:26:50 -0700, "Matt Barrow"
wrote:

The same guy (Ted Smith ?) who designed the Rockwell/AeroCommander series,
now called the Twin Commander.

Don't know about Ted Smith, the information I have, which was compiled
by Joseph Baugher and posted to the internet years ago is as follows:

Requests for proposals were widely circulated throughout the industry.
Proposals were received from Martin, Douglas, Stearman, and North
American. The proposal of the Glenn L. Martin company of Middle
River, Maryland (near Baltimore) was assigned the company designation
of Model 179. Martin assigned 26-year old aeronautical engineer
Peyton M. Magruder as Project Engineer for the Model 179. Magruder
and his team chose a low-drag profile fuselage with a circular cross
section. Since the Army wanted a high maximum speed but hadn't
specified any limitation on landing speed, the team selected a
high-mounted wing with a wingspan of only 65 feet. Its small area
gave a wing loading of more than 50 pounds per square foot. The wing
was shoulder-mounted to leave the central fuselage free for bomb
stowage. The wings were unusual in possessing no fillets. The
engines were to be a pair of 1850 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-5 Double
Wasp air-cooled radials, which were the most powerful engines
available at the time. Two-speed mechanical superchargers were
installed in order to maintain engine power up to medium altitudes,
and ejector exhausts vented on each side of the closely-cowled
nacelles. The engines drove four-bladed 13 foot 6 inch Curtiss
Electric propellers. Large spinners were fitted to the propellers,
and root cuffs were added to aid in engine cooling.

I archived a number of his aircraft development histories, they are
comprehensive and dry, tending to the technical side with long lists
of serial numbers for respective models and where each was deployed.

Corky Scott