North American XB-28 Dragon

The North American XB-28, company designation NA-63, was North American Aviation's proposal for a high-altitude medium bomber, answering a United States Army Air Corps requirement issued on 13 February 1940. It began as a development of the B-25 Mitchell but evolved into a new design closer in look to the Martin B-26 Marauder, with a single tail in place of the B-25 twin tail and one of the first pressurized cabins fitted to a combat aircraft. It first flew on 26 April 1942 and outperformed the B-25, yet it never entered production, because high-altitude bombing was hampered by cloud and wind over the Pacific while medium bombers were proving more effective at low level. Two prototypes were built, the second as the XB-28A reconnaissance test aircraft, which was lost in the Pacific in 1943. The name Dragon is a later attribution that contemporary accounts do not use.