America's WW2 Flying Boat That Came With A Kitchen | Martin PBM Mariner

sailors

martin

pbm these planes were beautiful, they were majestic and they were so large that they actually served as a floating home for the crews that operated them. Heck, not many military aircraft can boast having their own galley, but unless you're an aviation enthusiast. You probably don't know much about the sailor. Despite distinguishing herself during the Second World War, she would never achieve the popularity of her slightly older cousin, the Pby Catalina, and her post-war legacy was marred by a series of accidents, one of the reasons. Because its obscurity is due to the lack of surviving models, there are numerous examples of Catalinas to be found today, including over a dozen examples worth hearing, but if you wanted to get your hands on a PBM Mariner you would have to steal the only example. from the Pima Air and Space Museum, which I don't really recommend since stealing priceless World War II era airplanes is generally frowned upon, but you can get a digital version of this majestic sky whale thanks to video sponsor War Today's Thunder.

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flying

in every direction.

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By the mid-1930s, the seaplane had established itself as an essential tool for the US Navy. Their size and versatility made them suitable for a large number of roles and, as they were not dependent on the use of a runway, they could operate in any remote area as long as there was a body of water nearby. The consolidated PBY Catalina had recently entered service in 1936 replacing to the less capable p2y and the

martin

p3m, but within 18 months the navy was already looking for an upgrade the top brass had been impressed by the deep-hull floatplanes operated by pan-

america

n airways the so-called pan am clippers sikorsky had built the s40 and the s42 martin's first m130 flew in 1935 and the The Boeing 314 still in development showed great promise.

The influence of these aircraft can be seen in naval requirements for the next generation of seaplanes which call for a larger, stronger and more seaworthy successor to the Catalina. It's clearly an insult to Catalina enthusiasts everywhere. This new generation is made up of three aircraft, the established pb2y coronado, the sikorsky xpbs1 and the martin pbm

mariner

, which is the star of today's video and by far the most successful of the three in meeting the requirements of the navy . Martin set to work on a new design under the company's designation. Model 160. was a clean-lined four-engine metal

flying

boat

with an exceptionally deep hull that was wider at the bottom than at the top, however, there was a money problem or rather a lack thereof.

Martin had invested a considerable amount of funds in the aforementioned Clipper only to lose to Boeing in the long run. They couldn't afford to risk the cost of building a full-scale prototype and instead offered to build a quarter-scale flying model as a proof of concept. Its main established competitor disagreed. with this and pressured the navy to fulfill its role of accepting full-scale prototypes, only this behind-the-scenes dispute caused delays, but actually gave Martin the opportunity to modify his proposal so that it would be redesignated more attractively to As the Model 162 Martin changed its design from a four-engine floatplane to a two-engine floatplane in hopes of winning over the Navy with a more profitable aircraft, several other changes were made and the most radical was a gold wing configuration that It was adopted to keep the engines as far away as possible. above the water as much as possible while allowing the wing to be attached to the top of the fuselage rather than as an umbrella support satisfied with Martin's amended proposal, the US Navy issued a contract to build a prototype and the aircraft received the experimental designation XPBM. patrol bomber martin once again the cost of building a full scale prototype was prohibitive and once again martin offered to build a scale model arguing that less time and materials would be wasted if major redesigns were needed and this was completed at 3 scale ,8 and was called Model 162, affectionately nicknamed Tadpole Clippers, was used to evaluate the hydrodynamics of the hull for takeoff and landing, as no radial engine was small enough to fit in the reduced cowlings.

A single engine was installed in the fuselage that powered Testing of both propellers using a pair of belts on this scale model proved extremely useful, allowing modifications to be made to the prototype before construction even began and the navy was so impressed. Due to its performance, they placed an order for 20 pbm of production in the model. December 18, 1937, a full 14 months before the full-scale prototype would even fly. The construction of said prototype took up all of 1938 and the xpbn 1 was completed in the first weeks of 1939. It made its first flight on February 18 and then departed. Through the usual routine of flight test service evaluations, etc., during these tests, members of the Navy Aeronautics Office were impressed with what they saw with a wingspan of 118 feet or 36 meters, unique bombs With engine nacelles that could carry 4,000 pounds or 1,800 kilos of ordnance and a two-story hull packed with all the facilities needed for long-range missions, the PBM was an imposing sight to behold, it was also well defended with provisions for five defensive positions, each with a 50 caliber machine gun, one was in a nose turret another in a dorsal turret two were installed amidships in waste positions and the last one was in the tail originally martin designed it so that a 20-millimeter cannon could replace the machine gun in the nose but was later abandoned as the Navy decided that installing two .50-caliber machine guns was a more reliable option.

To lift this mass into the air a pair of recently introduced R2600-6 right cyclones were used, each generating a generous 1600 horsepower and powering flight tests with standard three-blade Hamilton propellers. of the prototype went relatively well, apart from some problems with the tail and some purposes that had been accurately predicted by the scale model, the flight characteristics were considered good to solve the tail problem, a dihedral was added to the surfaces horizontals of the tail that coincided with the dihedral of the gold. On the wings, the vertical fins remained at a 90 degree angle to the tailplane, resulting in the characteristic tail design that distinguished the PBM from its contemporaries.

After successfully completing its evaluations, the XPBM was accepted by the navy in December 1939 with the first production. The pbms were delivered the following autumn, externally the pbm1 was almost identical to the final version of the prototype, except for some contour changes in the areas of the turret and the upper part of the hull forward of the tail, these entered service with patrol squadrons vp55 and vp56 and by the In the summer of 1941 all 20 of the original order had been delivered. It was around this time that the tradition of officially naming aircraft was introduced, a decision made by the government which thought it was easier for the general public to recognize an aircraft by a name rather than by an arbitrary series of letters, hyphens and Occasional issues, manufacturers were given the option of choosing a name themselves or letting the army or navy do it for them and Martin opted for the name Mariner.

Sailors quickly found themselves operating in near-war conditions as the United States was expanding. The extent and reach of naval patrols to help protect material shipments to Britain against German submarines. These activities were ostensibly described as neutrality patrols intended to keep the United States out of a European war, although in practice they were effective violations of antagonizing neutrality. German leaders and military and whose details were hidden as much as possible from the American public despite not having seen any actual wartime combat at this time, the navy was satisfied enough with the pbm1 to order an improved version of the aircraft in the fall of 1940.

The initial order for what would become the PBM3 amounted to 379 units, but final production would be almost double that figure. To help Martin cope with this sudden increase in demand, the US government helped fund the construction of a new manufacturing facility in Maryland and production. were launched, although built in smaller numbers, the pbms were perhaps the most recognizable due to their retractable floats, although useful in reducing drag during flight, they were not up to the task of withstanding repeated hits of aquatic operations when the vp55 squadron was reformed. as vp74 and shipped to reykjavik, iceland, they suffered multiple problems with these floats when taking off and landing in rough seas, which inevitably led to accidents, some serious, and all later models would be fitted with larger fixed floats, against the recommendation The commanding officer of vp74 squadron remained in Iceland during the winter months with the basic seadrome exposing the PBMs to prolonged periods of weather that would have tested any aircraft at the time and this unfortunately led to the unit's first operational loss when a PBM crashed into the side. from a mountain in dense fog on November 1, the plane had been kept in Reykjavik for greater range, since although the sailors could cover a lot of ocean, they could not cover it all from their coastal bases in the United States. .USA because From this, a PBM1 was heavily modified to test the feasibility of an extremely long range variant.

Fuel capacity was increased from 2,700 to 4,815 US gallons or just over 18,000 liters for metric enthusiasts. Accessories for launching catapults were added and the structure was reinforced to support it. With the added weight and launch load known as XPBM2, this experimental sailor was successfully launched from a specialized catapult ship in 1942, but by that time the United States was already in the war, attacks on Allied convoys in the Atlantic were already underway. They were reaching a critical level and the pressing need for anti-submarine aircraft meant that all energy was devoted to the production of the pbm3, instead the pbm3

came

in several different subvariants;

In fact, only 32 were built in the original configuration and those would never see service in the skies as The first 50 production units were stripped of their armor and defensive weaponry and modified as transports known as the PBM-3R. All of them were delivered to the naval air transport service which was undergoing rapid expansion to keep up with growing demand. Cargo doors and elevators with reinforced floors were added for the navy's logistical needs and operational seating was provided for up to 20 passengers, although sailors were often configured to carry up to 30. Once transport models were out of the way The next major production subvariant, the PBM 3C made its first appearance in September 1942.

This new top-of-the-line model featured a number of improvements. Defensive armor was increased, installedturrets, the position of the tail gun was improved and twin 50 caliber machine guns were mounted in the front and dorsal positions. Some pbm3c. They were also equipped with a search radar mounted in a large housing above the spine of the hull, just aft of the cockpit, this be

came

a very recognizable feature and was put to good use in anti-submarine warfare. These were the first sailors to see extensive use in warfare. and their crews quickly realized that life aboard a sailor was much more similar to being aboard a ship than an airplane, this was because they spent a lot of time on board, missions could last up to 14 hours depending on fuel, weather and time at sea.

On board a seaplane, half the crew had to be aboard its sailors at all times in case of an emergency. Because of this, the plane came with a set of facilities that, while not luxurious by any means, at least made life on board bearable and even comfortable there. It was a sleeping cabin that had four berths, this also functioned as a general bathroom for the off-duty crew and the sailor had a full galley with a small pantry etc. where one of the crew acted as cook and prepared meals. The sanitary facilities served were less advanced and the head consisted of a can with a seat, a paper bag and a tube.

In essence, it was a flying barracks and its nine occupants spent many hours, days and months in each other's company, which meant that they were among the most close-knit and familiar crews in the service. and the Caribbean was opportune German submarines had recently changed tactics rather than suffer air attacks from beneath the waves that many had refitted with better anti-aircraft weaponry hoping to tangle with the relatively The weak patrol planes they had encountered so far took a hit. unpleasant surprise when the enormous mass of the sailor descended on them like a steel whale brandishing a pair of machine guns and hurling high explosives.

With extreme prejudice, the Martin Mariner saw much action in this theater, particularly when the submarines launched a new campaign targeting Allied shipping in the Caribbean, the PBMs became a welcome stop for Allied convoys and, along with other aircraft and destroyers, this type helped shoot down 10 submarines during 1942 and 1943. A famous pbm3c called the nickel

boat

sank two submarines, one on 17 May 1943 and the other on 19 July. Continued experience in anti-submarine patrols led to reports that most of the sailors' defensive weaponry was superfluous, as they were rarely in use. a location that ran the risk of encountering enemy aircraft as a result of this 94 pbm-3 were modified to become pbm-3 a variant dedicated to secondary fighter the upper turret was removed and fed over the nose turret was replaced by a Simple mount for twin Brownings, tail gun installation was simplified, but a single .50 caliber was retained and a waist gun was removed with the navigator seated in the position previously occupied by the gunner.

These anti-submarine sailors were painted overall white with gray upper surfaces, very similar to the schemes. Found on aircraft operated by the British Coastal Command, they operated exclusively in the Atlantic, some were assigned to the Coast Guard in 1944, while others continued to patrol the Panama Canal Zone throughout their service life, Coastal Command is now spoken of as war. In the Atlantic, the British Admiralty contemplated the use of the Mariner within its own ranks, the Coastal Command already had a commendable seaplane, the Short Sunderland, in fact, the Mariner and the Sunderland were similar in many ways, both had a versatility of exceptional range and both came with a variety of facilities to accommodate their crew, but concerns remained that the supply of British aircraft could not keep pace with the demands of Coastal Command, so Sailor 32 Pbm 3cs was considered It was converted to a new standard, pbm3b, and shipped to Great Britain.

Under the Len Lease Program in British hands, they were known as the Mariner GR Mark 1 and the first arrived in August 1943 and were all assigned to the specially formed 524 Operational Training Squadron, unlike the Catalina which was used in large amounts by the British. The Mariner flew only a few months before the decision was made not to adopt it. Apparently one large seaplane was enough to handle it, as some of the aircraft were sent back to the United States, but 12 were retained, converted into transports and handed over to the Royal Australian Air Force flying with No. 41 Squadron, they provided support. long range to the RAF during the island hopping campaigns against the Japanese and remained in service until 1946 while doing an excellent job of hunting down the submarine threat.

Martin Mariner had not yet appeared in the largest seaplane theater the Pacific. This changed with the PBM 3D intended to participate in the multitude of planned island assaults. It was improved in almost every way to make it stronger, faster and more capable. of survival. The defensive armament was increased to eight fifty caliber machine guns, two in the nose, two in the dorsal position, two in the tail and one on each side of the waist. Armor protection was significantly increased for the crew, particularly the cockpit and nose, and Martin introduced a new type of bullet-resistant fuel cells, which was the biggest boost in the aircraft's survivability tests in the prototype model, a converted c variant proved that the existing engine was not up to the task, so an improved version of the cyclone was installed which put out 1900 Unfortunately, early production models of the new cyclone engine came with valve seats defective and any of the PBMs equipped with this power plant were plagued with engine problems until the first engines were phased out.

A PBM 3D equipped with these recalcitrant engines had a remarkable adventure while being transported over Arizona in the spring of 1944. The plane suffered engine failure and patrol plane pilot Scott Fitzgerald carefully landed it on the lake. Wilcox Dry, east of Tucson. The ground was smooth and the landing caused some scrapes on the hull. but there was no significant damage, the sailor was stripped of all non-essential items equipped with specially modified beach gear, turned into the wind and then took off from the dry lake bed, finally arriving in San Diego without further problems after this incident, the plane was known. like the Wilcox dry lake mirage and this was a nickname that stuck for the rest of his time pbm 3ds were in action in the pacific when operation forager the mariana campaign began in mid 1944 in the pacific theater PBMs primarily flew Dumbo air sea rescue and surface anti-submarine patrol missions, although they also carried out anti-ship missions and when the Marianas were safe, the PBM 3D was joined by the penultimate version of the Mariner, the PBM5 before the PBM. 3d or even 3cs had come out of the martin plants it had been recognized that the

mariner

's performance was being held back by its engine a new pbm4 series was planned with the power plant being the correct r3350-8 cyclone which was more powerful with more of 2000 horsepower, initial orders were placed with Martin in 1941, but then the limited supply of engines became a bottleneck for possible production lines and the order for the PBM4 was cancelled, in its place came the authorized PBM5 By the Navy in 1943, the PBM-5 was an even more powerful improvement on the Mariner design, now powered by a pair of new, larger Prattan Whitney R2800-34 twin wasps, generating 2,100 horsepower and driving a pair of three-bladed propellers, although these were later replaced by four steel ones.

Blade units built by Curtis along with the most powerful engines, the PBM5 was the first sailor to have the capability for jet or rocket assisted takeoff. Seaplanes have to reach a certain speed to rise to the plane of the water, so most of the hull is out of the water and therefore does not cause hydrodynamic resistance. The application of rocket-assisted takeoff allowed sailors to reach speed with higher loads, which meant they could carry more fuel, more payload, or both, depending on mission requirements. Deliveries of the PBM 5 began in August 1944 with 589 delivered before the end of the war and the abrupt termination of production, the PBM 5 was a mainstay of naval patrol squadrons in the final year of the conflict as the Allied islands surged towards Japan.

PBMs were never far from forward areas, often moving into the waters around islands that had not even been secured yet. To operate PBMs in places as remote as these, the Navy built or converted dozens of destroyers and ships the size of escort on seaplane support tugs. The abd's auxiliary seaplanes and avs auxiliary seaplanes most of these ships provided berth space and limited maintenance support to Pbm crews in austere locations with protected anchorages and, to address more serious repair needs, the auxiliary seaplanes Larger, purpose-built ones were equipped with heavy-lift derricks. Able to lift the seaplanes completely out of the water and onto the deck, these ships were definitely needed as the PBM began to take a beating in the Pacific and it wasn't all due to enemy action.

Martin's initial decision to use a two-engine design was now beginning to haunt them; even with the improved Pratt and Whitney engines, sailors still felt somewhat underpowered. This was not only a performance issue but also a safety issue, plus the lack of power meant the plane needed more sea space to take off. and this was aggravated in adverse weather conditions, the onslaught of large waves sometimes caused structural failures in the hull and other times caused the plane to violently roll over, often with fatal consequences. A former gunnery specialist aboard a sailor commented that when they took off in bad weather the decks of all the nearby ships were full of men waiting to see if they would survive.

It was around this time that the sailor had also earned the ominous nickname of the flying gas tank, as fuel tanks often let out so many fumes. in the hull that crashes sometimes resulted in violent explosions, there are even reports of unexplained mid-flight explosions, both during the war and after, and for wartime sailors, this may have been caused by a number of things, the

kitchen

stove lighting being one of them. Now while this sounds like the sailor had a propensity to detonate like a fuel bomb, it wasn't actually that common, it was just a case of a few incidents that gave him too dark a reputation, the engine problems were more of a problem, but with the use of the aforementioned rocket-assisted take-off capsules, the problem was rectified to some extent and meant that the sailors remained in the Pacific during the most important year of their service: 1945.

In the spring of 1945, sailors saw some of their most active service in support of the invasion of Okinawa operating from Kara Moreto a small group of islands southwest of Okinawa they carried out anti-ship operations against small enemy convoys and rescued Boeing crews B-29s lost during the bombing of Japan, as well as those of transport planes shot down in fighting between Formosa. and the Japanese islands, some were painted black for night operations similar to the famous black cat catalinas known as night sailors, their name was shortened to the nickname nightmare and whether this was a reflection of the crew's experience on torpedo missions nocturnal or enemy experience.

The experience of a flying canteen dropping high-powered explosive devices over their heads is a topic of debate. They were also used to bomb coastal installations on several smaller islands as the campaign progressed and as they approached the home islands this meant more frequent encounters with enemy fighters packed with defences, the sailors proving quite difficult to shoot out of the sky when they were not filled with highly explosive vapor. Many returned to their floating base on Kurama with fire and bullet holes galore, sometimes missing significant chunks of their hull. or tail, and although some partially separated on landing when the seas became rough, many more were patched up to fight another day, although they often became entangled with Japanese fighters sent to intercept them.

The crews ofThe sailors also had to deal with an unwanted amount of fire. of their own equipment during the invasion of Okinawa, ships and Knight Fighters became very touchy regarding aircraft identification. Kamikaze attacks made any aircraft that approached the fleet suspicious, even when its iff was displayed, and all too often it seemed that the pbm's iff did not display the The cause of this problem was the nature of the environment of the Pbm sailors, As it turned out that taking off and landing in seas with 10- to 15-foot swells produced bumps and jolts that weren't too kind to delicate equipment, the radar could sometimes be knocked out of commission. and other times the iff registered its protest in the form of total failure, this problem became a considerable headache for those in command, and a tasker commander stated that our effort to perfect the pbm iff continues unabated, the team It has become a fetish for pilots and electronics. maintenance personnel, however, the following incident indicates that the PBM iff is not effective in combating aircraft.

He then proceeds to describe an incident in which an agitated Knights pilot volunteered to fire a barrage of warning shots at a PBM whose IFF he thought was off, but in reality it turned out to be defective, but despite the enemy's efforts , the elements of their own ships and the occasional unwanted appearance of a shallow reef, many Pbm sailors survived the war. They were used widely in early occupational responsibilities from northern Japan to the coast of China and many islands. across the vastness of the Pacific, as many of these islands now had convenient runways, courtesy of the Japanese and American island-hopping campaigns, the sailors' lack of amphibious landing gear became something of a liability, making them which led to the last production model, the pbm 5a 40 of These amphibious models were eventually delivered, four were factory conversions and 36 were built as such from the beginning, when the last of them left the Martin plant in 1949, it represented the culmination of almost a decade of production. 1,366 of these large planes had been built, which by seaplane standards is not an insignificant number, and their work was by no means finished during the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll.

The sailors of the VBB-32 squadron were assigned as support aircraft and received the nickname Atomic Airline. high jump expedition to explore Antarctica and made the closest approach to the South Pole in a seaplane at that time and when the Korean War began, the sailors found themselves back in wartime service, six squadrons, including some units Sailors flew 9- to 12-hour patrol routes, often along the coasts of China, North Korea and Manchuria, they also patrolled the Straits of Tsushima and Formosa playing a new role for the sailor crews and a delight for their gunners, where they detonated sea mines with the use of their. defensive machine guns, including service in Argentina and Uruguay that lasted until the 1960s, the PBM had a service life that lasted more than two decades, it was a patrol aircraft, a naval bomber, a submarine hunter, a transport aircraft , a rescue plane and float plane that flew far from home for its crew, most of whom regarded the sailor warmly despite this and his not insignificant contribution to the war effort in both the Atlantic and Pacific has fallen in obscurity, which is a shame that the end of her lifespan being plagued by a series of fatal accidents certainly didn't help and she gained a reputation as something of a Widowmaker in her later years, according to the network's database. of aviation safety, between 1945 and 1959 there were no fewer than 18 major accidents involving sailors, many of them appear to have been due to engine failure, but at least two, according to records, were the result of explosions in midair. flight. and a sailor flying for a Portuguese airline and loaded with 30 passengers simply disappeared his last radio message was the sinister q-u-g which means I am forced to land immediately some of these accidents were a relic of the old underpowered engine problems and leaking fuel tanks, but others were the result of old, worn-out aircraft that simply were not maintained to the required standards, but regardless of the cause, the damage to their reputation was almost irreparable, as mentioned at the beginning of this video Only one PBM sailor survives today, a situation not helped by the aforementioned accidents.

It is owned by the Smithsonian but is currently on loan at Pima. Also in the Smithsonian's inventory. It is the legacy of its development. The original 3.8 scale model. After its usefulness ended an enterprising hand in Martin put the model away and a few years later it was donated to the Smithsonian Air and Space Facilities in 1953, although it replaced the PBY Catalina in many of its frontline roles during the final year of the Second World War. It was the Catalina, not the Martin Mariner, that would survive for decades and lodge itself in the hearts and minds of the general public.

It was because the Catalina was objectively better than the Mariner, I don't think so. I think their designs were different enough to fit slightly different niches in the post-war era. Did the Catalina offer more flexibility? probably than the sailor and certainly had a better safety record, but catalina versus marine arguments aside, the many aircrews who called this aircraft home for countless missions during the war almost unanimously believe that the old sailor does not receive the credit it deserves, hopefully. This video went a bit to rectify that, once again, thanks to War Thunder for sponsoring today's video.

Don't forget to register your account for free using the link below to get those free premium benefits and hopefully I'll meet you on a plane. tank or boat next time I log on as always thank you all so much for watching and thank you so much of course to the customers with a special shout out to kevin deliado bain fb christopher r tronathon eric heinmann john austin jr ray colotta keith terrier Green Sea Ships Webb MCT of Northland, Ted Parsons and Captain Lorenzo, for your support as Wing Commander, sponsors here, thank you all so much and I'll see you all next time, bye.