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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Martin Aircraft" redirects here. For the current New Zealand Martin Aircraft
Company, its Jetpack, and designer Glenn Neal Martin, see Martin Jetpack.
Glenn L. Martin Company

Industry Aerospace
Founded 1917; 108 years ago
Founder Glenn L. Martin
Defunct 1961
Fate Merged with American-Marietta Corporation
later merged into Lockheed-Martin Corporation
Successor Martin Marietta
Headquarters Santa Ana, California[citation needed], United States
Products Aircraft

The Martin B-26 Marauder, a bomber produced by Martin during World War II
The Glenn L. Martin Company, also known as The Martin Company from 1917 to 1961,
was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation
pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for
the defense of the US and allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Martin Company moved from the aircraft industry
into the guided missile, space exploration, and space utilization industries.

In 1961, the Martin Company merged with American-Marietta Corporation, a large

industrial conglomerate, forming the Martin Marietta corporation. In turn, Martin
Marietta in 1995 merged with aerospace giant Lockheed Corporation to form the
Lockheed Martin corporation.[1][2]

History
Origins
Glenn L. Martin Company was founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Luther Martin on
August 16, 1912.[3] He started the company building military training aircraft in
Santa Ana, California, and in September 1916, Martin accepted a merger offer from
the Wright Company, creating the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company.[1] This merger did
not function well, so Glenn Martin left to form a second Glenn L. Martin Company on
September 10, 1917. This new company was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.[3]

Mexican Revolution

The Sonora, a Martin Pusher single-seater, saw combat in the Mexican Revolution
(1913)
In 1913, Mexican insurgents from the northwestern state of Sonora bought a single-
seater Martin Pusher biplane in Los Angeles with the intention of attacking federal
naval forces that were attacking the port of Guaymas. The aircraft was shipped on
May 5, 1913, in five crates to Tucson, Arizona, via Wells Fargo Express, and then
moved through the border into Mexico to the town of Naco, Sonora. The aircraft,
named Sonora by the insurgents, was reassembled there and fitted with a second seat
for a bomber position.[citation needed]

The Sonora, armed with rudimentary 3-inch (76 mm) pipe bombs, performed the first
known air-to-naval bombing runs in history.[citation needed]

World War I

A Glenn Martin TT with Sergeant Broeckhuysen of the Royal Netherlands East Indies
Army Air Force seated in the middle with factory mechanics (1917)
For the Netherlands East Indies, several planes were delivered, with the first
flight on November 6, 1915. It involved two Type TEs, six Type TTs, and eight Type
Rs. Martin's first big success came during World War I with the MB-1 bomber,[4] a
large biplane design ordered by the United States Army on January 17, 1918. The MB-
1 entered service after the end of hostilities. A follow-up design, the MB-2,
proved successful;[4] 20 were ordered by the Army Air Service, the first five of
them under the company designation and the last 15 as the NBS-1 (Night Bomber,
Short range). Although the War Department ordered 110 more, it retained the
ownership rights of the design, and put the order out for bid. The production
orders were given to other companies that had bid lower, Curtiss (50), L.W.F.
Engineering (35), and Aeromarine (25).[5] The design was the only standard bomber
used by the Air Service until 1930, and was used by seven squadrons of the Air
Service/Air Corps: Four in Virginia, two in Hawaii, and one in the Philippines.

Inter-war years
In 1924, the Martin Company underbid Curtiss for the production of a Curtiss-
designed scout bomber, the SC-1, and ultimately Martin 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 U.S. Navy, and the innovative
Martin B-10 bomber for the Army.[6] The Martin Company also produced the noted
China Clipper flying boats used by Pan American Airways for its transpacific San
Francisco to the Philippines route.

World War II
During World War II, a few of Martin's most successful designs were the B-26
Marauder[7] and A-22 Maryland bombers, the PBM Mariner and JRM Mars[8][9] flying
boats, widely used for air-sea rescue, anti-submarine warfare and transport. The
1941 Office for Emergency Management film Bomber was filmed in the Martin facility
in Baltimore, and showed aspects of the production of the B-26.[10]

Martin ranked 14th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production
contracts.[11] The company built 1,585 B-26 Marauders and 531 Boeing B-29
Superfortresses at its new bomber plant in Nebraska, just south of Omaha at Offutt
Field. Among the B-29s manufactured there were all the Silverplate aircraft,
including Enola Gay and Bockscar, which dropped the two war-ending atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.[12]

Postwar

XB-48 bomber prototype, in front of Martin Company hangar, c. 1947

On April 22, 1957, the company name was changed to the Martin Company.[13]

Postwar efforts in aeronautics by the Martin Company included two unsuccessful

prototype bombers, the XB-48 and the XB-51, the marginally successful AM Mauler,
the successful B-57 Canberra tactical bombers, the P5M Marlin and P6M SeaMaster
seaplanes, and the Martin 2-0-2 and Martin 4-0-4 twin-engined passenger airliners.

The Vanguard rocket, designed and built by Martin for Project Vanguard, prepares to
launch Vanguard 1.
The Martin Company moved into the aerospace manufacturing business. It produced the
Vanguard rocket, used by the American space program as one of its first satellite
booster rockets as part of Project Vanguard. The Vanguard was the first American
space exploration rocket designed from scratch to be an orbital launch vehicle —
rather than being a modified ballistic missile (such as the U.S. Army's Juno I).
Martin also designed and manufactured the huge and heavily armed Titan I and LGM-
25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Martin Company of
Orlando, Florida, was the prime contractor for the US Army's Pershing missile.[14]

The Martin Company was one of two finalists for the command and service modules of
the Apollo Program. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
awarded the design and production contracts for these to the North American
Aviation Corporation.

The Martin Company went further in the production of larger booster rockets for
NASA and the U.S. Air Force with its Titan III series of over 100 rockets produced,
including the Titan IIIA, the more-important Titan IIIC, and the Titan IIIE.
Besides hundreds of Earth satellites, these rockets were essential for the sending
to outer space of the two space probes of the Voyager Project to the outer planets,
the two space probes of the Viking Project to Mars, and the two Helios probes into
low orbits around the Sun (closer, even, than Mercury).

Finally, the US Air Force required a booster rocket that could launch heavier
satellites than either the Titan IIIE or the Space Shuttle. The Martin Company
responded with its extremely large Titan IV series of rockets. When the Titan IV
came into service, it could carry a heavier payload to orbit than any other rocket
in production. Besides its use by the Air Force to launch its sequence of very
heavy reconnaissance satellites, one Titan IV, with a powerful Centaur rocket upper
stage, was used to launch the heavy Cassini space probe to the planet Saturn in
1997. The Cassini probe orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, successfully returning
mountains of scientific data.

The halting of production of the Titan IV in 2004 brought to an end production of

the last rocket able to carry a heavier payload than the Space Shuttle, which
itself ended in 2011.

The Martin Company merged with the American-Marietta Corporation, a chemical-

products and construction-materials manufacturer, in 1961, to form the Martin
Marietta Corporation. In 1995, Martin Marietta, then the nation's third-largest
defense contractor, merged with the Lockheed Corporation, then the nation's second-
largest defense contractor, to form the Lockheed Martin Corporation, becoming the
largest such company in the world.[2]

The Martin Company employed many of the founders and chief engineers of the
American aerospace industry, including:

Dandridge M. Cole – moved on as aerospace engineer at General Electric

Donald Douglas – founder of Douglas Aircraft, later as McDonnell Douglas (now part
of Boeing)
Lawrence Dale Bell – founded Bell Aircraft, now Bell Helicopter
James S. McDonnell – founded McDonnell Aircraft, later as McDonnell Douglas (now
part of Boeing)
J.H. "Dutch" Kindleberger – CEO and chairman of North American Aviation
Hans Multhopp – concepts used to create NASA's Space Shuttle
C. A. Van Dusen – Brewster Aeronautical Corporation
Martin also taught William Boeing how to fly and sold him his first airplane.

Products
Aircraft

Martin P3M-2

An abandoned Pro Air Martin 4-0-4 N255S in Paris, Texas

Model name First flight Number built Type
Martin MB-1 1918 20 Twin piston-engined biplane bomber
Martin NBS-1 1920 130 Twin piston-engined biplane bomber
Martin MS 1923 6 Single piston-engined biplane scout
Martin N2M 1924 1 Prototype single piston-engined biplane trainer
Martin MO 1922 36 Single piston-engined monoplane observation airplane
Martin T3M 1926 124 Single piston-engined biplane torpedo bomber
Martin T4M 1927 103 Single piston-engined biplane torpedo bomber
Martin BM 1929 33 Single piston-engined biplane torpedo bomber
Martin XT6M 1930 1 Prototype single piston-engined biplane torpedo bomber
Martin PM 1930 55 Twin piston-engined biplane flying boat patrol airplane
Martin XP2M 1931 1 Prototype triple piston-engined monoplane flying boat
patrol bomber
Martin P3M 1931 9 Twin piston-engined monoplane flying boat patrol bomber
Martin B-10 1932 348 Twin piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin M-130 1934 3 Quadruple (quad) piston-engined monoplane flying boat
airliner
Martin 146 1935 1 Prototype twin piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin M-156 1937 1 Quad piston-engined monoplane flying boat airliner
Martin PBM Mariner 1939 1,366 Twin piston-engined monoplane flying boat
patrol bomber
Martin 167 Maryland 1939 450 Twin piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin B-26 Marauder 1940 5,288 Twin piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin 187 Baltimore 1941 1,575 Twin piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin JRM Mars 1942 7 Quad piston-engined monoplane flying boat transport
Boeing B-29 Superfortress 1944 536 Quad piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin AM Mauler 1944 151 Single piston-engined monoplane attack airplane
Martin P4M Mercator 1946 21 Twin piston-engined monoplane patrol bomber
Martin 2-0-2 1946 47 Twin piston-engined monoplane airliner
Martin XB-48 1947 2 Prototype six-jet-engined monoplane bomber
Martin 3-0-3 1947 1 Prototype twin piston-engined monoplane airliner
Martin P5M Marlin 1948 285 Twin piston-engined monoplane flying boat patrol
bomber
Martin XB-51 1949 2 Prototype triple jet-engined monoplane bomber
Martin 4-0-4 1950 103 Twin piston-engined monoplane airliner
Martin B-57 Canberra 1953 403 Twin jet-engined monoplane bomber
Martin P6M SeaMaster 1955 12 Quad jet-engined monoplane flying boat patrol
bomber
Martin/General Dynamics RB-57F Canberra 1963 21 Twin jet-engined monoplane
reconnaissance airplane
Martin M2O-1 3 Single piston-engined biplane float observation
airplane
Martin XO-4 N/A 0 Single piston-engined biplane observation airplane
Martin 70 ~2 Single piston-engined biplane mail plane
Martin XNBL-2 N/A 0 Unbuilt twin piston-engined biplane bomber
Martin XLB-4 N/A 0 Unbuilt twin piston-engined biplane bomber
Martin XB-16 N/A 0 Unbuilt quad piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin XB-27 N/A 0 Unbuilt twin piston-engined monoplane bomber
Martin XB-33 Super Marauder N/A 0 Unbuilt twin piston-engined monoplane
bomber
Martin XB-68 N/A 0 Unbuilt twin jet-engined monoplane bomber
Martin 193 N/A 0 Unbuilt six-piston-engined monoplane flying boat transport
Martin P7M SubMaster N/A 0 Combined quad piston/twin jet-engined flying
boat antisubmarine airplane
Aircraft engines
Martin 333, a four-cylinder inverted in-line piston engine
Missiles and rockets
AAM-N-4 Oriole
ASM-N-5 Gorgon V
MGM-1 Matador
MGM-13 Mace
MGM-18 Lacrosse
MGM-31 Pershing
Bold Orion
Titan (rocket family)
SM-68 Titan
HGM-25A Titan I
LGM-25C Titan II
Viking (rocket)
Booster rockets
The four-stage Vanguard rocket
Titan II GLV
Titan III
Titan IIIB
Titan IIIC
Titan IV
In addition, after the removal of 54 Titan IIs from alert status as ICBMs in the
mid-1980s, about 50 of them were used as satellite launchers by the U.S. Air Force.
The rest of them were either scrapped or used as museum pieces.
Automobile
1928 Martin 100 Aerodynamic[15]
See also
Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum
Martin State Airport
Lester P. Barlow
References
"Lockheed Martin History." Archived 2011-04-03 at the Wayback Machine
lockheedmartin.com. Retrieved: July 30, 2011.
Lockheed Martin Company history." Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved: July 30, 2011.
Rumerman, Judy. "The First U.S. Aircraft Manufacturing Companies." Archived 2007-
09-30 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003. Retrieved:
July 30, 2011.
, "Glenn L. Martin Co." Archived 2007-12-24 at the Wayback Machine The
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Retrieved: July 30, 2011.
Rumerman, Judy. "Glenn L. Martin Company." Archived 2003-04-05 at the Wayback
Machine U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003. Retrieved: July 30, 2011.
Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World
War II, p. 6, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World
War II, p. 238, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World
War II, p. 277, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
Goebel, Greg. "The Martin Mariner, Mars, & Marlin Flying Boats."[usurped] Air
Vectors. Retrieved: July 30, 2011.
"National Archives and Records Administration". archive.org. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
Peck, Merton J. & Scherer, Frederic M. The Weapons Acquisition Process: An
Economic Analysis (1962) Harvard Business School p.619
Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World
War II, pp. 330–1, Random House, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4.
Harwood, William B. (1993). Raise Heaven and Earth. Simon & Schuster. p. 333. ISBN
0-67-174998-6.
Jolliff, Elizabeth C. (20 May 1974). History of the Pershing Weapon System.
Redstone Arsenal, Alabarrla 35809: U.S. Army Missile Command. p. 288.
"Martin Aerodynamic- 1928". Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved
2021-04-13.
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenn L. Martin Company.

Glenn L Martin Maryland Aviation Museum Archived 2014-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
Glenn L. Martin Company Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Archives and Special Collections Archived 2021-02-01 at the Wayback Machine
Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MD-136, "Glenn L. Martin Aircraft
Company Plant No. 2, 2800 Eastern Boulevard, Middle River, Baltimore County, MD", 3
photos, 5 data pages, 1 photo caption page
HAER No. MD-136-A, "Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company Plant No. 2, Administration
Building", 3 photos, 1 photo caption page
HAER No. MD-136-B, "Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company Plant No. 2, Assembly
Building", 10 photos, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. MD-136-C, "Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company Plant No. 2, Drop Hammer
Building", 2 photos, 1 photo caption page
HAER No. MD-136-D, "Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company Plant No. 2, Paint Shop", 1
photo, 1 photo caption page
vte
Martin and Martin Marietta aircraft
Categories: Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United StatesAviation in
MarylandHistoric American Engineering Record in MarylandRocket engine manufacturers
of the United StatesManufacturing companies established in 1912Companies based in
Santa Ana, CaliforniaDefunct manufacturing companies based in California1912
establishments in CaliforniaFormer defense companies of the United StatesAerospace
companies of the United StatesManufacturing companies disestablished in 19611961
disestablishments in California
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