Martin’s PBM Mariner 1937-1956

    
The Martin PBM Mariner seaplane was
deployed from 1940 to 1956 for a period of sixteen years. It was in
production for twelve years. Few planes of that era had that length of
production and fleet service. Glenn Martin had built his first plane at
Santa Ana, California in 1909. Like the Wrights, he left bicycle and auto
interests for the flying machine. He was in and out of a partnership with
the Wright brothers. By 1917, he had an aircraft plant in Cleveland, Ohio.
Martin was always innovative and fast from design to production. He built
aircraft for the army and the navy and later added some commercial airline
business. This diversity continued as long as his company produced
aircraft, well into the fifties.
     In the early
thirties his B-10 gave the USAAC their first long range enclosed cockpit
bomber. In the middle thirties he answered Pan American’s challenge for an
aircraft that had the range to fly the vast Pacific. His answer for them
was the ChinaClipper seaplane. Three of these were built; the China,
Philippine and Hawaiian Clippers. They were outfitted for up to fifty-two
passengers in luxury accommodations and had a range of 3,200 miles. Their
four engines gave them a cruising speed of 150 m.p.h.
     Fresh from
success with earlier twin-engine flying boats for the navy and the larger
Clippers, the Martin team proposed their gull-winged model 162 (PBM)
flying boat to the navy and included, for the first time, a three-eights
scale man-carrying airplane to prove its air and water worthiness. The
navy placed an order on June 30, 1937 for one prototype XPBM-1. This
prototype was flown for the first time on February 18, 1939. By December
an order was given for twenty production PBM-1’s. These had retracting
stabilizing wing floats. The . . . . . .