The Amiot 144 was a further development of the Amiot 143 that made its maiden flight on 18th January 1936.
The development consisted on giving the new aircraft retractable landing gear instead of the fixed one of the original Amiot 143. It had smaller wing area but with a bigger aspect ratio, by decreasing the width of the wings and they also featured wing flaps. It was armed with the usual four defensive gun points of the model, a turret (that was removed later in the prototype) in the nose, another spinal one, a ventral gun point and another one firing through the bottom part of the aircraft.
Twenty-five of them were ordered in September 1936, but the performance of the prototype was disappointing and by the end of 1936 the order was converted for 25 more Amiot 143M.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiot_143
2. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_amiot_144.html
3. https://www.aviafrance.com/amiot-144-aviation-france-2672.htm (translated)
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