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[The_Alaska_Man]

Hey folks, how about this seaplane for our virtual skies

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 Consolidated PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940

The first PBM-1s entered service with Patrol Squadron Fifty-Five (VP-55) of the United States Navy on 1 September 1940. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, PBMs were used (together with PBYs) to carry out Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic, including operations from Iceland. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, PBMs were used on anti-submarine patrols, sinking their first German U-boat, U-158 on 30 June 1942. PBMs were responsible, wholly or in part, for sinking a total of 10 U-boats during World War II. PBMs were also heavily used in the Pacific War, operating from bases at Saipan, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and the South West Pacific. The United States Coast Guard acquired 27 Martin PBM-3 aircraft during the first half of 1943. In late 1944, the service acquired 41 PBM-5 models and more were delivered in the latter half of 1945. Ten were still in service in 1955, although all were gone from the active Coast Guard inventory by 1958 (when the last example was released from CGAS San Diego and returned to the U.S. Navy). These flying boats became the backbone of the long-range aerial search and rescue efforts of the Coast Guard in the early post-war years until supplanted by the P5M Marlin and the HU-16 Albatross in the mid-1950s.

PBMs continued in service with the U.S. Navy following the end of World War II, flying long patrol missions during the Korean War.It continued in front line use until replaced by its direct development, the P5M Marlin, with the last USN squadron equipped with the PBM, Patrol Squadron Fifty (VP-50), retiring them in July 1956.

The British Royal Air Force acquired 32 Mariners, but they were not used operationally, with some returned to the United States Navy.A further 12 PBM-3Rs were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force for transporting troops and cargo.

The Royal Netherlands Navy acquired 17 PBM-5A Mariners at the end of 1955 for service in Netherlands New Guinea. The PBM-5A was an amphibian with retractable landing gear. The engines were 2,100 hp (1,600 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34. After a series of crashes, the Dutch withdrew their remaining aircraft from use in December 1959.

Crew: Seven
Length: 79 ft 10 in (23.50 m)
Wingspan: 118 ft 0 in (36 m)
Height: 27 ft 6 in (5.33 m)
Wing area: 1,408 ft² (131 m²)
Empty weight: 33,175 lb (15,048 kg)
Loaded weight: 56,000 lb (25,425 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Wright R-2600-6 14-cylinder radial engines, 1,600 hp (1,194 kW) each
Performance

Maximum speed: 178 kn (205 mph, 330 km/h)
Range: 2,600 nmi (3,000 mi, 4,800 km)
Service ceiling: 19,800 ft (6,040 m)
Rate of climb: 800 ft/min (4.1 m/s)
Armament

Guns: 8 × .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns (two each in nose, dorsal and tail turrets, one each in blisters amidships)
Bombs: 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) of bombs or depth charges or 2 × Mark 13 torpedoes

[SAS~Bombsaway]

+1 from me. Great request.

[David Prosser]

Hi, The_Alaska_Man. It'd certainly be nice to see one of these in the game.


cheers

David Prosser

[barrett_g]

+1!  I love me some seaplanes... There's just something sexy about them... I guess maybe because you can stumble across some remote island and find a group of topless natives worshipping you and your airplane?  LOL!

Note:  While the early PBM's had retractable wing floats... And the newer PBM's had retractable amphibious landing gear.... The most widely used PBM in WWII was the PBM-5.... Which had neither... Making this a pretty straight forward airplane.... The only animation/coding it would need besides basic flight controls would be the two bomb-bays in the wing nacelles.






(Loading bombs in bomb-bays)


(Note the open bomb-bays)


JATO!

[tooslow]

Martin PBM Mariner

Please note the statistics below are slightly different than the first post and come from William Greens’s “War Planes of the Second World War, volume 5, FLYING BOATS” published in 1962 andStewart Wilsons book “Aircraft of WWII” published in 1998

PBM Production = 1405 Aircraft broken down as follows

  1  XPBM-1 [1,600HP R-2600-6] -1st Prototype, flew February 18, 1939
20 PBM-1  [1,600HP R-2600-6] Deliveries began in 1941 this model had retractable wing floats
  1  XPBM-2  [1,600HP R-2600-6] Special long range prototype almost doubled the fuel capacity
32 PBM-3B/GR.1 [1,700HP R-2600-12] RAF version with enlarged fixed wing floats
274 PBM-3C [1,700HP R-2600-12] Armed reconnaissance-bomber
201 PBM-3D [1,900HP R-2600-22] 4 bladed propellers and increased fuel tank capacity & armament
50 PBM-3R [1,700HP R-2600-12] Unarmed cargo version
156 PBM-3S [1,700HP R-2600-12]  Specialized anti-submarine warfare with reduced defensive armament
2 XPBM-5  [2,100HP R-2800-34]  Prototypes first flown May 1943
631 PBM-5  [2,100HP R-2800-34] Similar to -3D except higher powered engines
1 XPBM-5A [2,100HP R-2800-34]
36 PBM-5A  [2,100HP R-2800-34] Amphibian version of PBM-5 used mainly by US Coast Guard

Below are pictures of a few valiants

PBM Drawing1


PBM Drawing2


PBM-1


PBM-3B


PBM-3D


PBM-3S


PBM-5


Hope someone picks this plane to build … tooslow
 

[Joberg]

nice cut-away pic! Are any of these still flying? I could live in one!

[The_Alaska_Man]

nice cut-away pic! Are any of these still flying? I could live in one!

Sadly no, taken from Wikipedia

United States Navy PBM-5A (Bureau Number (BuNo) 122071) is the only surviving Mariner. It is on loan from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. and is currently on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum adjacent to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Operated by the USN between 1948 and 1956, it is painted in the markings of Transport Squadron 21 (VR-21) and coded RZ 051 of the early 1950s.

[farang65]

The US Navy lost one during a search mission

looking for Flight 19 that went missing over The Bahamas

6 planes gone   

Kirby

[AG-51_Razor]

Awesome request!! This would be to the PBY as the SB2C Helldiver is to the SBD Dauntless. Faster, heavier bomb load and much cooler looking!! 

[The_Alaska_Man]

Lots of nice pics there tooslow, I hope this sees the light of day.

[SAS~Malone]

this gets my 'funky' seal of approval - hope it garners some modder's interests....

[barrett_g]

Some more reference material: