Glenn L. Martin Company
|
The B-26 Marauder, a bomber produced by Martin during World War II. |
The
Glenn L. Martin Company was an
aircraft company founded by aviation pioneer
Glenn L. Martin on
August 16,
1912.
Martin started out building military trainers in
Santa Ana,
California, and then in
1916, accepted a merger offer from the
Wright Company, creating the
Wright-Martin Aircraft Company in September. This apparently did not go well, and Martin left to form a second Glenn L. Martin Company on
September 10,
1917, this time based in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Martin's first big success came with the
MB-1 bomber, a large
biplane design ordered by the
US Army on
January 17,
1918. The MB-1 entered service too late for
World War I, but a follow up design, the
MB-2, was so successful that the Army ordered 130 more. Unfortunately for Martin, the production orders were given to other companies that had bid lower.
In
1924, Martin underbid
Curtiss on production of a Curtiss-designed scout bomber SC-1, and ultimately produced 404 of these. In
1929, Martin sold the Cleveland plant and built a new one in
Middle River, Maryland, northeast of
Baltimore.
During the 1930s, Martin built flying boats for the
US Navy, and the innovative
B-10 bomber for the Army. It also produced the famous
China Clipper flying boat used by
Pan American Airways for its
San Francisco to
Manila route.
During
World War II, a few of Martin's most successful designs were the
B-26 Marauder and
A-22 Maryland bombers, the
PBM Mariner and
JRM Mars[http://www.vectorsite.net/avmars.html#m5] flying boats, widely used for air-sea rescue,
anti-submarine warfare and transport.
Postwar efforts included unsuccessful prototype
XB-48 and
XB-51 bombers, the
B-57 Canberra night bombers, the
P5M Marlin flying boat, and the
Martin 4-0-4 twin-engine passenger plane.
Martin merged with the
American-Marietta Corporation in
1961 to form the
Martin Marietta Corporation, which subsequently merged with the
Lockheed Corporation in 1995 to form
Lockheed Martin.
The Martin Company employed many of the founders and chief engineers of the American aerospace industry, including
William Boeing,
Donald Douglas,
Lawrence Bell,
James S. McDonnell,
J.H. "Dutch" Kindleberger (
North American Aviation) and C.A. Van Dusen (
Brewster Aeronautical Corporation).
*
Glenn L Martin Maryland Aviation Museum (has its own
Wiki)
* http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Martin/Aero12.htm
