Warbird Information Exchange

The Glenn L. Martin Company was founded by aviation pioneer Glenn Luther Martin on August 16, 1912. Martin started building military trainers in Santa Ana, California, and in 1916, Martin accepted a merger offer from the Wright Company, creating the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company in September. This new company did not go well, and Glenn Martin left to form a second Glenn L. Martin Company on September 10, 1917; it was based in Cleveland, Ohio. (Later, its headquarters would be moved to Baltimore, Maryland.)

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 flying boats, widely used for air-sea rescue, anti-submarine warfare and transport.

Martin ranked 14th among US corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The Martin Company built a total of 531 Boeing B-29 Superfortresses and 1,585 B-26 Marauders at its Omaha, Nebraska, plant 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.

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Zero Surprise!!...

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Zero Surprise!!...

Wow! Those are beautiful color images! I’m guessing those factory gust locks would be pretty hard to miss on a walkaround.

As always Mark, thank you for posting.

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Cheers,

Craig

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One word, wow! Great pics, and that wingless Maryland is a real cherry-on-top. Do you happen to know the ID of the unpainted B26? Is that the prototype?

Btw, second pic is a reverse negative, props go the wrong way.

Thanks again for posting, more please if you have them!

Reversed images fixed:

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

Fantastic! Gotta love the Marauder.

Thanks, Mark!

Richard

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I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Having climbed many a ladder to get an overall view during my career, I especially enjoyed the group shot with the French-ordered Maryland and the Mariner. Simply because you can see the shadows of both the photographer and the assistant in the foreground!

Very nice Mark. Again thanks for posting.

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Better is the enemy of Good.

Great pics! When I saw the factory assembly line photo the first thing that I thought of was Arado 234

That first picture he really seems to be pondering those fancy new props they had to wait for.

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Always looking for WW2 Half-Tracks and Parts.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=2600

Tail stripes being painted out in Australia, early 1942. 22nd Bomb Group.

Thanks Mark. Love the photos!

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Great photos Mark! I really like the night time shots of the Marauders rolling of the assembly line. I love the wartime story about Bob Hoover flying a Marauder off a beach to recover it and earning a DFC in the process. It's a shame there are no Marauders currently flying.