 | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1917; 108 years ago (1917) |
| Founder | Glenn L. Martin |
| Defunct | 1961 (1961) |
| Fate | Merged withAmerican-Marietta Corporation later merged intoLockheed-Martin Corporation |
| Successor | Martin Marietta |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Products | Aircraft |
TheGlenn L. Martin Company, also known asthe Martin Company from 1917 to 1961, was an Americanaircraft andaerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneerGlenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the US and allies, especially duringWorld War II and theCold War. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Martin Company moved from the aircraft industry into theguided missile,space exploration, andspace utilization industries.
In 1961, the Martin Company merged withAmerican-Marietta Corporation, a large industrial conglomerate, forming theMartin Marietta corporation. In turn, Martin Marietta in 1995 merged with aerospace giantLockheed Corporation to form theLockheed Martin corporation.[1][2]
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 inSanta Ana, California, and in September 1916, Martin accepted a merger offer from theWright Company, creating theWright-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 inCleveland, Ohio.[3]
In 1913, Mexican insurgents from the northwestern state ofSonora bought a single-seater Martin Pusher biplane inLos Angeles with the intention of attacking federal naval forces that were attacking the port ofGuaymas. The aircraft was shipped on May 5, 1913, in five crates toTucson, Arizona, viaWells Fargo Express, and then moved through the border into Mexico to the town ofNaco, Sonora. The aircraft, namedSonora by the insurgents, was reassembled there and fitted with a second seat for a bomber position.[citation needed]
TheSonora, armed with rudimentary 3-inch (76 mm)pipe bombs, performed the first known air-to-naval bombing runs in history.[citation needed]
For theNetherlands 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 duringWorld War I with theMB-1bomber,[4] a largebiplane design ordered by theUnited States Army on January 17, 1918. The MB-1 entered service after the end of hostilities. A follow-up design, theMB-2, proved successful;[4] 20 were ordered by theArmy 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), andAeromarine (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.
In 1924, the Martin Company underbid Curtiss for the production of a Curtiss-designed scout bomber, theSC-1, and ultimately Martin produced 404 of these. In 1929, Martin sold the Cleveland plant and built a new one inMiddle River, Maryland, northeast ofBaltimore.
During the 1930s, Martin built flying boats for theU.S. Navy, and the innovativeMartin B-10 bomber for the Army.[6] The Martin Company also produced the notedChina Clipperflying boats used byPan American Airways for itstranspacificSan Francisco to thePhilippines route.
During World War II, a few of Martin's most successful designs were theB-26 Marauder[7] andA-22 Maryland bombers, thePBM Mariner andJRM Mars[8][9] flying boats, widely used forair-sea rescue,anti-submarine warfare and transport. The 1941Office for Emergency Management filmBomber 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 531Boeing B-29 Superfortresses at itsnew bomber plant inNebraska, just south ofOmaha atOffutt Field. Among the B-29s manufactured there were all theSilverplate aircraft, includingEnola Gay andBockscar, which dropped the two war-endingatomic bombs onHiroshima andNagasaki, Japan.[12]
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, theXB-48 and theXB-51, the marginally successfulAM Mauler, the successfulB-57 Canberratactical bombers, theP5M Marlin andP6M SeaMasterseaplanes, and theMartin 2-0-2 andMartin 4-0-4 twin-engined passenger airliners.
The Martin Company moved into theaerospace manufacturing business. It produced theVanguard rocket, used by the American space program as one of its firstsatellitebooster rockets as part ofProject Vanguard. The Vanguard was the first Americanspace exploration rocket designed from scratch to be an orbital launch vehicle — rather than being a modifiedballistic missile (such as the U.S. Army'sJuno I). Martin also designed and manufactured the huge and heavily armedTitan I andLGM-25C Titan IIintercontinental 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 thecommand and service modules of theApollo Program. TheNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded the design and production contracts for these to theNorth American Aviation Corporation.
The Martin Company went further in the production of larger booster rockets for NASA and theU.S. Air Force with itsTitan III series of over 100 rockets produced, including theTitan IIIA, the more-importantTitan IIIC, and theTitan IIIE. Besides hundreds of Earth satellites, these rockets were essential for the sending toouter space of the twospace probes of theVoyager Project to theouter planets, the two space probes of theViking Project toMars, and the twoHelios probes into low orbits around the Sun (closer, even, thanMercury).
Finally, the US Air Force required a booster rocket that could launch heavier satellites than either the Titan IIIE or theSpace Shuttle. The Martin Company responded with its extremely largeTitan 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 heavyreconnaissance satellites, one Titan IV, with a powerfulCentaur rocket upper stage, was used to launch the heavyCassini space probe to the planetSaturn 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 theMartin Marietta Corporation. In 1995, Martin Marietta, then the nation's third-largest defense contractor, merged with theLockheed Corporation, then the nation's second-largest defense contractor, to form theLockheed 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:
Martin also taughtWilliam Boeing how to fly and sold him his first airplane.
| 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 |
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