Martin PBM

Martin PBM Mariner
Martin PBM-3 of US Navy Squadron VP-74
Type:	Maritime patrol aircraft
Design country:	United States
Manufacturer:	Glenn L. Martin Company
First flight:	February 18, 1939
Commissioning:	1941
Production time:	1940 to 1949
Number of pieces:	1366

The Martin PBM Mariner was a flying boat made by Martin , which was used by the US Navy from the 1940s. It served as a patrol bomber for anti-submarine defense, as a transporter and for sea ​​rescue . The operating time extended from the Second World War to the beginning of the Cold War .

history

Royal Australian Air Force PBM, 1944

A Martin PBM has returned from a mine-hunting patrol off North Korea during the Korean War and is hoisted aboard the U.S. Navy seaplane tender USS Curtiss (AV-4) .

In the 1940s, the US Navy requested the development of a patrol flying boat . Then Martin designed the Model 160 with four engines, which was later redesigned into the Model 162 with two engines, which promised cost advantages over the four-engine rival designs from Consolidated and Sikorsky . The PBM Mariner should be used in addition to the Consolidated PBY . From the end of 1937, a scaled-down example was tested in flight as the 162A Tadpole Clipper with only one crew. In 1938 the prototype XPBM-1 was built and its maiden flight took place on February 18, 1939. Flutter problems in the tail unit led to a revision of the pattern for the XPBM-1A, with which weapon tests were later carried out.

From September 1940 the series version called PBM-1 went into service (first with the VP-55 squadron), which compared to the prototype had a modified horizontal stabilizer with a positive V-position. After a single prototype XPBM-2 intended for long-distance use and catapult launch, the PBM-3 was produced in series from 1942. The support floats were permanently installed and more powerful R-2600-12 engines with 1268 kW and four-blade propellers were used.

In 1943 the Royal Air Force received 32 PBM-3B machines, which were only tested, but not used. The RAF returned some of the machines to the USA. Twelve of these machines went to the Royal Australian Air Force as troop and cargo transports .

In the PBM-3C, which was used from 1942/43, the defensive armament was changed, the armor reinforced and an AN / APS-15 radar installed. The PBM-3D was equipped with self-sealing tanks, a bomb sight and motors boosted to 1417 kW, increasing the speed to 340 km / h, the range to 3600 km and the bomb load to 3630 kg. It was used in the spring of 1944 in the battle for the Pacific island of Saipan .

The PBM-3R, which was delivered from the end of 1942 (and mostly a result of conversion from the PBM-3), was an unarmed and unarmored version as a transporter with landing flaps, a reinforced cabin floor, freight elevator and twenty foldable seats.

A contract for 230 PBM-4s was canceled in April 1943, so the following version became the PBM-5. This version, which was mostly built with over 600 pieces, differed from the PBM-3 in that it had more powerful and more reliable R-2800 motors. The first 36 PBM-5A (later four more machines were converted to PBM-5A) were delivered by March 1949 and used as amphibious aircraft. These could also operate from land with their retractable three-part nose wheel landing gear. In addition, four jump start kits could be installed on the rear fuselage. Versions retrofitted with radar systems and avionics were later named PBM-5E, S and S2; the latter was identifiable on the radar antenna in a teardrop-shaped panel on the fuselage behind the cockpit.

Series production ended in 1949 after 1366 copies.

The US Navy used the Martin PBM during the Korean War, among other things, for mine hunting patrols .

Remaining stocks were delivered to the Netherlands and Uruguay after the war . In Uruguay, the machines were used until 1963. Several Martin PBMs were converted to civil aircraft and used by the Portuguese airline ARTOP Linhas Aéreas , among others . On November 9, 1958, one of these aircraft with 36 occupants disappeared without a trace on ARTOP flight 531 from Lisbon to Madeira .

The only surviving example of the Mariner belongs to the National Air and Space Museum in the USA and is on loan from the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

The Mariner Islands in Antarctica are named after the flying boat.

construction

The wings of the shoulder wing have a distinct and characteristic kink in the area of ​​the wing root ( Puławski wing ). The aircraft is aerodynamically designed, has a boat-shaped fuselage and a double tail unit, with the rudders pointing inwards in a V-position. The aircraft has three gun turrets for MG and bomb bays for up to 1814 kg of bombs or torpedoes integrated in the engine pods of the radial engines. The PBM-1 still had retractable side floats, while the PBM-3 had fixed side floats. In addition, the PBM-3 was almost a meter longer.

variants

PBM-5S of the VP-50 squadron in April 1956

Launch of a US Coast Guard Mariner with jump starter kits

Flak hit on PBM after attack on U-161

Model 162A

Prototype on a reduced scale of 1: 4, built as a single-seat aircraft to check the properties of the design, a machine.

XPBM-1

Prototype with a crew of six, powered by two Wright R-2600 -6 radial engines with 1600 hp each. The aircraft was later converted to the XPBM-1A (BuNo 0796).

PBM-1

first series of aircraft, with two radial engines Wright R-2600-12 with 1700 HP each, (BuNo 1246, 1248 to 1266), built 20.

XPBM-2

Prototype, (BuNo 1247), a machine built.

PBM-3

Wright-R-2600-22 radial engines with 1927 hp each and support floats under the wings, 379 PBM-3, 50 PBM-3R transporters, 274 PBM-3C, 201 PBM-3D and 156 PBM-3S were built.

PBM-4

Wright-R-3350-8 engines, order for 180 machines was canceled in favor of the PBM-5

XPBM-5A

Prototype of an amphibian variant .

PBM-5

Wright-R-2600-22 or -34 radial engines, 631 built.

production

Acceptance of the Martin PBM Mariner by the US Navy:

Type	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949	TOTAL
PBM-1	11	9									20th
XPBM-2		1									1
XPBM-3E		1									1
PBM-3R			approx. 19	approx. 30							49
PBM-3C			approx. 103	approx. 171							274
PBM-3D				approx. 114	approx. 145						259
PBM-3S				approx. 44	approx. 50						94
XPBM-5				2							2
PBM-5					215	379	26th	10			630
XPBM-5H								1			1
PBM-5A									30th	7th	37
total	11	11	122	361	410	379	26th	11	30th	7th	1,368

Technical specifications

3-sided tear of the PBM-5S

Parameter	Data of the PBM-1 Mariner
crew	7th
length	23.50 m
span	36 m
height	5.33 m
Wing area	131 m²
Empty mass	15,048 kg
Takeoff mass	25,425 kg
Engines	two radial engines Wright R-2600-12 with 1700 HP (1300 kW) each
Top speed	330 km / h
Service ceiling	6040 m
Range	4800 km
Armament	five 12.7 mm machine guns, 1,800 kg bombs or two Mark 13 torpedoes

Web links

Commons : Martin PBM  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Internet FAQ Archives - eng.
• The PBM on history.navy.mil - eng.
• The PBM in the US Coast Guard - eng.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FliegerRevue July 2011, pp. 54–57, Martin PBM Mariner
2. ↑ Statistical Digest of the USAF 1946. pp. 94 ff; 1947, p. 115; 1948II, p. 16; 1949, p. 164 ff .; www.uswarplanes.net