Prize Bomber

Every spring a committee meets in Washington to decide upon "the greatest achievement in aviation in America, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." To the person or institution responsible for the achievement goes a bronze figure of a male rising from a sphere, head held high, right hand grasping a soaring pigeon. It is the Collier Trophy, established 1911 by the late Robert Joseph Collier, son of old Publisher P. F. Collier of Collier's Weekly. Besides being editor of Collier's after the Spanish-American War, Son Robert was an early aeronaut, a director in 1909 of Wright Airplane Co., president in 1911 of Aero Club of America. In the Mexican border disorders of 1913 he loaned a plane & pilot to the Army, first use of an airplane by U. S. military forces.

The National Aeronautic Association, heir to certain functions of the old Aero Club, has continued administration of the trophy. Last week the award committee, chairmanned by F. Trubee Davison, announced its choice for 1932. a year not notable for spectacular achievement, as 1933 will be for 40% increase of airline speeds, for development of a "silent" transport plane (Curtiss Condor) and possible perfection of blind landing facilities. The committee might have considered the Curtiss company's production of a compact fighting plane to be carried aboard Navy airships. Or any of several companies for perfection of a controllable-pitch propeller. Or the Department of Commerce for its network of radio beacons which was in complete daily use last year. The committee chose none of those but turned to Glenn L. Martin Co. of Baltimore for its Army bomber which can streak at 200 m.p.h. with two tons of bombs in its big belly.

The Martin bomber is a mid-wing monoplane with retractable landing gear, two 550-h.p. Cyclone engines built into the wing. A transparent enclosed turret in the nose houses a machine gun crew. In tests the ship had to be throttled down to keep pace with its convoy of pursuit planes.

The name of Glenn L. Martin is one of the oldest currently famed in U. S. aviation, and one of the least popular. When the Wright brothers were doing mysterious things in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, Glenn Martin, 17, was tinkering bicycles at his parents' home in Santa Ana, Calif. Four years later he built a glider: a year later, a crude 22-h.p. pusher airplane which got off the ground. Thereby he became the third man in the world to fly a heavier-than-air craft of his own invention. To get funds for further experimentation Glenn Martin became a showman, developed an aptitude for publicity which stood him in good stead years later. Photographs of his early barnstorming days show him about to take off with a lady parachute jumper, clad in pink tights, perched on the wing. About that time he won medals for an astonishing overwater flight to Catalina Island 28 mi. offshore. Few years later he took Mary Pickford up for her first flight.

An airplane builder in earnest, he had his factory running full blast in 1912, producing planes for barnstormers and intrepid sportsmen. As early as 1913 he got the first of the government contracts on which he has since thrived. In 1917 came the first of the Martin bombers, first U. S.-designed airplane for Liberty engines. Since the War, Martin has produced hundreds of patrol boats and torpedo planes for the Navy, bombers for the Army, from his former Cleveland factory and his superb new plant near Baltimore. An unsuccessful mail plane was Martin's only non-military venture lately until this year when Pan American Airways submitted specifications for a huge riving boat of long cruising range for oceanic service. Every manufacturer rejected the proposal as impossible, except Martin. Subsequently Sikorsky decided it could also do the job. Currently both companies are working on contracts for three ships each. Presumably his fortunes were low when he got the Army contract for the new bomber.

Builder Martin's engineering staff is always of the best but he is not a good mixer, has had numerous bitter quarrels with business associates and employes. One such is his onetime chief engineer. Donald Douglas, now a famed airplane builder of bombers, amphibians, transports in his own right. Builder Martin has not piloted a plane for some 15 years. He dresses nobbily. lives in Washington with his mother. Mrs. Minta Martin, his constant companion, who was to be on hand this week when President Roosevelt formally presents the Collier trophy to her son.

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