Douglas B-18 and/or Martin 146 to have 4-engines

[Zipper730]

I wonder how the B-17 program would have went then...

 

[Shortround6]

Zipper, such planes with four engines would be so far removed from the 2 engine planes that were built that no meaningful comparison can be made. It would be much more than adding 15 ft or so to each wing and sticking an extra engine nacelle in the new space. Avro got away with it with the Lancaster, in part because they were replacing two 1800hp engines with four 1200-1300hp engines and already had a rather long fuselage.
The B-18 and Martin 146 were already using just about the largest and most powerful engines they could get at the time. What the engine makers were promising for the future (2-4 years ahead) may have been different. B-17 used a wing that was about twice the area of the wing on the Martin 146.

 

[GrauGeist]

Look up the USAAC's XBLR program from the mid-30's and see just how large those wings were.

The Boeing B-15 and Douglas B-19 were actually built, Sikorsky's XBLR-3 and Martin's XBLR-4 never left the design stage.

 

[Zipper730]

Zipper, such planes with four engines would be so far removed from the 2 engine planes that were built that no meaningful comparison can be made.

I figured it would be tantamount to a different design altogether off the bat.

Look up the USAAC's XBLR program from the mid-30's and see just how large those wings were.

The XB-15's wing area was 2780 ft^2 on a 149'0" wing; the XB-16A has a wingspan of 173'0" with an area of 4256 ft^2, I never knew Sikorsky produced a design.

 

[Shortround6]

Zipper, some "what if's" are fine, but a one sentence question that asks people to imagine planes that never were and were never even on paper is not going to get a good answer as each person looking at it is going to come up with a different imaginary airplane to compare to the early B-17. My Martin 146 S (for stretch) is going to be different from every other Martin 146 S form ever other members and since all of us are guessing trying to compare such guesses to actual hardware is rather pointless.