AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 135 / 343

Plate 135 of 343 · Second World War · Patrol and rescue amphibian

Martin PBM-5A Mariner

PBM-5A BuNo 122071, painted as Martin PBM-5A Mariner BuNo 122071, the only complete Mariner left, on loan from the Smithsonian to the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona, and marked as an aircraft of Transport Squadron 21 (VR-21), NAS Barbers Point, around 1950: a US Navy patrol and rescue flying boat converted to an amphibian, with a deep two-step hull, a gull wing spanning 35.97 m, two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radials in long nacelles, fixed wing-tip floats, twin oval fins canted inward on a dihedral tailplane, a radar pod on a pylon behind the flight deck and a faired tail cone in place of the tail turret, shown standing on its tricycle landing gear: overall glossy sea blue, white star and bar with red stripes on the bow, a red propeller warning line, ‘071’ in white on the rear hull, the VR-21 code ‘RZ’ in white on both fins, and black propellers with yellow tips (shape from the Bureau of Aeronautics PBM-5S three-view checked against photographs of this aircraft; the national insignia’s blue disc is not shown as it cannot be seen against the sea blue in any photograph, and no wing insignia are shown as none is visible in the photographs).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Martin PBM-5A Mariner BuNo 122071, the only complete Mariner left, on loan from the Smithsonian to the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona, and marked as an aircraft of Transport Squadron 21 (VR-21), NAS Barbers Point, around 1950: a US Navy patrol and rescue flying boat converted to an amphibian, with a deep two-step hull, a gull wing spanning 35.97 m, two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radials in long nacelles, fixed wing-tip floats, twin oval fins canted inward on a dihedral tailplane, a radar pod on a pylon behind the flight deck and a faired tail cone in place of the tail turret, shown standing on its tricycle landing gear: overall glossy sea blue, white star and bar with red stripes on the bow, a red propeller warning line, ‘071’ in white on the rear hull, the VR-21 code ‘RZ’ in white on both fins, and black propellers with yellow tips (shape from the Bureau of Aeronautics PBM-5S three-view checked against photographs of this aircraft; the national insignia’s blue disc is not shown as it cannot be seen against the sea blue in any photograph, and no wing insignia are shown as none is visible in the photographs). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.6 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (PBM-3 & PBM-5); engine, crew and dimensions are for the PBM-5A BuNo 122071 modelled here.

History

The PBM-5A Mariner

Martin designed the Mariner in 1937 as a successor to the Consolidated PBY Catalina, a bigger and faster patrol flying boat with a deep hull, a gull wing that lifted the propellers clear of the spray, and twin fins on a tailplane angled sharply upward. To test the layout the company built and flew a quarter-scale, man-carrying model, the Model 162A, in December 1937. The full-size prototype XPBM-1 first flew on 18 February 1939, and the first production PBM-1s joined the US Navy’s Patrol Squadron 55 in September 1940.

Through the Second World War the Mariner hunted submarines and flew convoy escort, search and rescue and transport sorties over the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Pacific. PBMs had a hand in sinking ten U-boats, the first of them U-158 off Bermuda in June 1942. The RAF took 28 as the Mariner GR.I and gave them to No. 524 Squadron at Oban in 1943, but preferred its Sunderlands and returned them to the US Navy within months. The PBM-5, with 2,100 hp R-2800 engines and search radar, became the main wartime and post-war version.

After the war Martin built 36 PBM-5A amphibians, with a tricycle undercarriage that let them operate from runways as well as water, and the last of them were delivered in 1949. Mariners flew patrols during the Korean War and served the US Coast Guard on rescue duty, and the US Navy retired its last in July 1956. Others went to the Netherlands, which flew them over Netherlands New Guinea, and to Argentina and Uruguay, where the last was withdrawn in 1964. In all, 1,366 Mariners were built.

This airframe

PBM-5A Mariner BuNo 122071

BuNo 122071The airframe modelled

BuNo 122071 was accepted by the US Navy in 1948 and served with Patrol Squadron 33 (VP-33) and then in the Naval Academy’s programme to give midshipmen a taste of naval aviation. After retirement it was registered as N3190G, and in 1973 it was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which has lent it to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. It is the only complete Mariner left anywhere, and none is in a UK museum. The museum restored it in the colours of Transport Squadron 21 (VR-21) at NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii, in the early 1950s, and it is now displayed inside one of the museum’s hangars. The model shows it standing on its wheels as displayed: overall glossy sea blue, a white star and bar with red stripes on the bow, a red propeller warning line, ‘071’ in white on the rear hull, the squadron code ‘RZ’ on both fins, a radar pod on a pylon behind the flight deck, and black propellers with yellow tips. Its shape comes from a Bureau of Aeronautics three-view of the PBM-5S checked against photographs of this aircraft; the blue disc of the national insignia is not shown because it cannot be seen against the sea blue in any photograph, and no wing insignia are shown because none is visible.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The only complete survivor is at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona.

All 343 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.