Guess it's time to throw another clue, or two, out there for you all to chew on.
I'm looking for an aircraft:
1) This plane actually was rejected upon it's initial submission to it's home country's military
2) This plane later became so successful that it had seven variants produced
3) Many of the aviation "experts" of the time felt this plane was not as good in the role of a plane it replaced
4) Depending on the variant, this plane could have a crew of one or two
5) This plane is a twin engine design
6) Even with twin engines, this plane isn't the fastest in it's class, nor is it the slowest
7) This plane was rejected(per clue 1) do to what was considered a better, single engine design being chosen instead
8) When this plane was accepted, it was accepted because of two design changes. One of the changes was the substitution of heavier landing gear over the original design
9) Due to this plane's design, it can carry a considerable payload. This can vary by configuration between fuel, ordinance or, in limited cases, small amounts of cargo
10) While this plane was named after "something" in the animal kingdom, it WAS NOT named after any form of "cat"(been there done that three or four times already)
11) The roles this plane "'inherited" were previously handled by aircraft from two "noted" aircraft manufacturers
12) This plane has flown in combat on several occassions
Good Luck