James Vernon Martin, aviator and inventor during the pioneering days of aviation. He joined the merchant marine (1900) before attending the University of Virginia and Harvard (graduate degree, 1912). While at Harvard he organized the Harvard Aeronautical Society (1910), served as its first director, and through the Society organized the first international air meet in the U.S. (1910). He traveled to England in January 1911 for flight training and received FAI license #55 (7/Feb/1911).

Returning to America in June 1911, he traveled in exhibitions (1911-13) before rejoining the merchant marine as commander of USS Lake Frey in 1914. During 1915 he performed flight tests for the Aeromarine Co. In 1917, he formed the J V Martin Aeroplane Co on the strength of nine aeronautical patents, including his automatic stabilizer (1916) and retractable landing gear (1916). In 1920 he moved the company to Dayton as Martin Enterprises and offered free use of his patents to the American aeronautical industry.

In 1922 he moved to Garden City NY and renamed the company the Martin Aeroplane Factory. Two years later he sued the government and the Manufacturers Aeronautical Association, claiming that they conspired to monopolize the aviation industry. The suit was dismissed in 1926, but Martin continued to press his claims of collusion through the 1930s. During WW2 he again went to sea, commanding a troop transport in the Pacific. Afterwards he tried unsuccessfully to raise industry and public interest in a large catamaran flying boat, the Martin Oceanplane. (K O Eckland)