AIR: Martin's Miracle

Day in & day out last week, a stub-winged, twin-motored monoplane darted off the Glenn L. Martin Airport near Baltimore, cut the sky at 340-360 m.p.h., landed for checkups by Martin engineers and Army Air Corps observers. It was one of the Army's (and the R. A. F.'s) latest and best bets for air war: the Martin B-26 medium bomber. From two electrically twirled turrets and from fuselage blisters a dozen machine guns bristled—twice the number on such U. S. planes before World War II taught its lesson of more firepower.

It also had leak-proofed tanks (which Martin and Manufacturer Leroy Grumman had for years vainly begged the Army and Navy to use), armored cockpits.

Glenn Martin has a $131,000,000 order for about 1,000 B-26s, last week had the first 20-odd moving rapidly along his assembly line. The best news of his plane last week was not its performance (1,000-mile range, 3,000 to 4,000 Ib. of bombs) but the fact that it was approved. The experimental model which was flown last week ordinarily would have received weeks of further testing by the Air Corps, then more time would have been taken for changes. After all that, Maker Martin could have gone ahead with real production (until he was interrupted again). This lengthy process was expedited by the Air Corps' Major General Henry H. Arnold (now Deputy Chief of Staff) who recently approved the B-26 after Martin officials had assured him that it was ready for service. Said "Hap" Arnold, with a miraculous burst of speed: "Never mind about that [further testing]. You start sending us the planes as fast as you can and don't stop until we say when."