According to COBRA!: Bell Aircraft Corporation 1934 - 1946, Birch Matthews, Schiffer 1996, the Bell entry in the 1938
dual-purpose attack bomber contest (DB-7, Martin 167, Stearman X-100, NA-40) was the Model 10, the Model 9
being only a proposal for an earlier Army contest.
In this earlier contest Bell and the other firms were invited to build prototypes, at their own expense, and Bell declined,
probably for financial reasons. No production contracts were ever awarded in this competition, so Bell no doubt saved
a lot of money.
To quote Matthews on the Model 9: "Not much is known about this proposal design. There is some reason to believe
it was a derivative of the YFM-1 Airacuda, but reconfigured to use Allison V-1710 tractor engines."
That is all that is said about the Model 9.
Jon
