When production of the earlierMartin 2-0-2 was stopped due to problems with wing structural failure the company decided to re-wing an improved version (which had already flown as theMartin 3-0-3 in 1947). The new aircraft was theMartin 4-0-4. It had structural changes to the wings, pressurization and was lengthened slightly to take 40 passengers. Like the earlier 2-0-2, the 4-0-4 was acantilevermonoplane with a standard tail unit (cantilever tailplane and single vertical stabilizer). It had anairstair in the lower tail section for passenger boarding and disembarkation, retractabletricycle landing gear and was powered by twoPratt & Whitney R-2800-CB16radial piston engines.
First deliveries in 1951 were made toEastern Air Lines (EAL), which had ordered 60, andTrans World Airlines (TWA), which had ordered 40. The only other new aircraft from the production line were delivered to theUnited States Coast Guard which had ordered two as executive transports with the designationRM-1G later changed toRM-1 and then in 1962 toVC-3A. In 1969 they were transferred to the United States Navy and were withdrawn from use by 1970. A total of 103 aircraft were built at theGlenn L. Martin factory inBaltimore.
TWA operated its 40 4-0-4s under the name "Skyliner" on scheduled services between 1 September 1950 and the last flight on 29 April 1961.[2] EAL operated its 4-0-4s in the eastern USA using the class name "Silver Falcon". The first EAL schedule was flown on 5 January 1952 and retirement came in late 1962.[3]
The restored Martin 404 in 2008 atCamarillo Airport wearing Pacific Air Transport markings shortly before its last flight toValle Airport
Later in their airline career, as they became displaced from the EAL and TWA fleets by turbine-powered aircraft, the 4-0-4s became popular with "second level" operators, known as "local service air carriers" in the U.S. as described and regulated by the federalCivil Aeronautics Board (CAB), with these airlines needing to replace theirDouglas DC-3s.[4] One of the last 'major' US airlines with a large fleet of piston-engined airliners wasSouthern Airways which operated 25 model 4-0-4s on a network of scheduled services fromAtlanta in October 1961, all ex-Eastern Airlines aircraft.[5] Southern Airways' last 4-0-4 service was flown on 30 April 1978[6] with the air carrier then replacing them with smallerFairchild Swearingen Metroliner "Metro II" turboprops. This was the last piston-engine airliner flight by any major U.S. air carrier. Martin 4-0-4s were also flown byPacific Air Lines (which subsequently merged withBonanza Air Lines andWest Coast Airlines to form Air West, which was then renamedHughes Airwest),Piedmont Airlines (which operated formerTWA 4-0-4 airliners),Ozark Air Lines andMohawk Airlines during the 1960s. Most of these planes were replaced in 1968 withFairchild F-27 and/orFairchild-Hiller FH-227B turboprop aircraft.
19 February 1955:TWA Flight 260 crashed into the Sandia Mountains; the three crew and 13 passengers died.[8]
1 April 1956:TWA Flight 400 crashed on takeoff from Greater Pittsburgh International Airport; 22 of the 36 people aboard the aircraft died.[9]
2 July 1963:Mohawk Airlines Flight 112 crashed during takeoff from Rochester-Monroe airport, seven people died and 36 were injured.[10]
30 May 1970:Lehigh Acres Development Inc. Flight 701 crashed nearAtlanta,Georgia, moments after departing fromDeKalb–Peachtree Airport, striking a car. One passenger aboard the plane and five people in the car died. Thirty passengers aboard the plane were injured.[11][12]
14119 – Fuselage in storage atFantasy of Flight inPolk City, Florida. It was previously registered as N40415 and is in former Provincetown–Boston Airlines livery.[14]
^"FAA REGISTRY [N636X]".Federal Aviation Administration. U.S. Department of Transportation. Archived fromthe original on 1 April 2017. Retrieved1 April 2017.
Andrade, John.U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909. Leicester, UK: Midland Counties Publications, 1979, pp. 95, 217.ISBN0-904597-22-9.
Breslau, Alan JeffryThe Time Of My Death: Story of Miraculous Survival (E. P. Dutton, New York 1977) The July 2, 1963 crash of Mowhawk Airlines in Rochester, New York.
Bridgman, Leonard.Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1953–54. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd, 1953.
