Sunday morning clue.
Looking for the name of a warbird.
1. Sometimes an aircraft design is so promising that a production contract is signed before the prototype has even flown. This was one of those aircraft.
2. Sometimes, and this was one of those times, ordering an aircraft into production before the prototype has flown isn't a good idea.
3. It was meant to replace an earlier aircraft which became well known and which served from the beginning of its war until the end.
4. Among other advances, it featured remote gun turrets.
5. Its design was begun even before the aircraft it was meant to replace had flown.
6. It was considerably faster than the aircraft it was meant to replace.
7. The first prototype was unstable in turns and even in straight and level flight.
8. The earliest models had a vicious stall which almost instantly became a spin under some circumstances. An early prototype crashed when its pilot could not stop the spin. Many changes to the design followed, but even after more than 100 aircraft had been built it still proved unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, full production was ordered because the aircraft it was meant to replace was suffering heavy losses.
9. Despite all these flaws, the airplane was ordered into full production and delivered to frontline units.
10. The pilots who received it disliked as much as the test pilots had, and so production was stopped after less than 10 percent of the airplanes that had been ordered were finished. However, an ally of the country in which it had been built considered it satisfactory and build a few hundred somewhat modified ones itself.
11. Production of the airplane our target was meant to replace had stopped, but it was re-started. The newer version of that airplane had better engines and heavier armament than the earlier versions, but the quest for a replacement continued.
12. A prototype of a revised version of our target aircraft was built and given a new designation. But the stability problems remained, so that project was cancelled.
13. The aircraft's stability problems were finally resolved by changes to the wing and the fuselage and by using more-powerful engines. The revised design was given a new designation, more than 1000 were built, and it served until the end of the war.
14. It had two engines and a crew of two.
15. It was armed with cannons and machine guns. Some versions built by the ally of the country in which it was developed could carry rockets.
16. And all of them could carry bombs, too.
17. It had dive brakes. Whether they were ever used in combat I don't know.
18. It had an internal bomb bay in the nose. It could carry two bombs weighing a little more than 1000 pounds each. The airplane it was designed to replace could carry bombs externally.