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MARTIN PBM MARINER
The Martin PBM Mariner was a patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on February 18 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.
Design and development:
The aircraft was fitted with five gun turrets and bomb bays that were in the engine nacelles. The gull wing was of cantilever design, and featured clean aerodynamics with an unbraced twin tail. The PBM-1 was equipped with retractable wing landing floats that were hinged inboard, while the PBM-3 had fixed floats. Also the fuselage of the PBM-3 was three feet longer than the PBM-1.
The British Royal Air Force acquired 32 Mariners. They were not used operationally and some were returned to the United States Navy and twelve were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force for transporting troops and cargo.
The Dutch Navy acquired seventeen PBM-5A Mariners at the end of 1955 for service in former Dutch New Guinea. The PBM-5A is an amphibian plane with retractable landing gear. The engines were 2100 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34. After several incidents the Dutch scrapped the aircraft in January 1960.
The Mariner had a reputation for being a "flying bomb", as a small spark could easily ignite the entire aircraft.
Sources:
Wikipedia: Martin PBM Mariner
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