Martin Aircraft Company
Martin PBM-1 Mariner
Manufactured 1940–1949 Introduction date September 1940 First flight 18 February 1939

The Martin PBM Mariner was a twin-engine American patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War era. It was designed to complement the Consolidated PBY Catalina and PB2Y Coronado in service. A total of 1,366 PBMs were built, with the first example flying on February 18, 1939, and the type entering service in September 1940, with the last of the type being retired in 1964.

A Mariner, otherwise noted for its WW2 and post-War service, was the type that vanished searching for Flight 19. Flight 19 vanished in the Bermuda Triangle, it and the Mariner that searched for it were never found with its 14 crew, though it was thought to have suffered a mid-air explosion. Another noted crash was the 1946 Antarctica PBM Mariner crash in December 1946.

U.S. Navy service

Design and development

In 1937 the Glenn L. Martin Company designed a new twin-engined flying boat, the Model 162, to succeed its earlier Martin P3M and complement the PBY Catalina and PB2Y Coronado. It received an order for a single prototype XPBM-1 on 30 June 1937.^[2] This was followed by an initial production order for 21 PBM-1 aircraft on December 28, 1937.

To test the PBM's layout, Martin built a 3⁄8 scale flying model, the Martin 162A Tadpole Clipper with a crew of one and powered by a single 120 hp (89 kW) Chevrolet engine driving two airscrews via v-belts; this was flown in December 1937. The first genuine PBM, the XPBM-1, flew on 18 February 1939.

The first PBM-1s entered service with Patrol Squadron Fifty-Five (VP-55) of the United States Navy on 1. Wiki Link