This silent footage dates to the time of the Martin P6M Seamaster flight test program, with the prototype the third P6M-2 production aircraft featured. At the start of the film you will see this incredible amphibian in the air on a test flight. The aircraft is seen being moved to the water at :28, and then performing engine run up tests. At 2:12 are nice shots of the plane on its cradle. Starting at about 3:30 are high speed taxi runs. At 7:59 what might be the maiden flight of the aircraft is shown. At 10:30 a nice fly-by followed at 10:55 by a landing. Another landing is seen at 13:30. At 13:58 a takeoff is shown in close up. At 18:39 the cockpit area of the aircraft is seen indicating it is “Ship 9”, but it is unclear what this means since only five aircraft were built. At 6:40 the aircraft is seen in position to be mated to the retrieval dolly. Some of the frogmen who perform this task are seen on the docks. At 28:48 the aircraft’s tail number can be clearly seen, 5878 — the third production P6M-2.
The Martin P6M SeaMaster, built by the Glenn L. Martin Company, was a 1950s strategic bomber flying boat for the US Navy that almost entered service; the program was cancelled on 21 August 1959. Envisioned as a way to give the Navy a strategic nuclear force, the SeaMaster was eclipsed by the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile. Due to the political situation at the Pentagon, the Navy promoted the P6M primarily as a high speed minelayer.
The first pre-production YP6M-1 was completed about a year later, with testing resuming in January 1958. Five more were built in 1958 when the Navy announced that Harvey Point Defense Testing Facility in Hertford, North Carolina, would serve as the testing grounds for the fleet of Martin P6M SeaMasters. These aircraft were fitted with test versions of the full combat equipment suite and were used for bombing, mine laying and reconnaissance evaluations. The J71 engines were unreliable and the aircraft had spray ingestion problems at higher gross weights, which limited takeoffs to ideal conditions. The P6M-1 also had a serious control deficiency due to porpoising under some trim settings. These deficiencies resulted in the P6M-1 program being cut as it was no longer considered possible for it to be successfully developed.
The Navy and Martin felt that a new version, the P6M-2, would provide a useful aircraft. The first was rolled out in early 1959. Changes included new, more powerful Pratt & Whitney J75 engines, an aerial refueling probe, improved avionics, and a canopy with better visibility. A buddy refueling drogue kit had also been developed to fit in the bomb bay. Three had been built by summer 1959 and Navy crews were moving them through operational conversion when the program was abruptly canceled in August of that year.
The P6M-2 was an impressive aircraft; its Mach 0.9 (1,100 km/h) performance “on the deck” could be equaled by few aircraft of the time. The aircraft were heavily built, with the skin at the wing roots over 1 in (25 mm) thick. The normally docile and pleasant handling characteristics of the P6M-1 were replaced by some severe compressibility effects above Mach 0.8. These included rapid changes in directional trim, severe buffeting, and wing drop requiring high control inputs to counter. Until those problems were fixed, the P6M-2 could not be considered for use by the Fleet. The problems were identified as being caused by the larger engine nacelles required for the J75s. There were also problems on the water, including a tendency for the tip floats to dig in under certain situations, and engine surges. These problems were eventually solved, but time had run out just as the first crews were training for its operational debut. Eisenhower’s administration was making major defense budget cuts that forced the Navy to make choices. In August 1959 Martin was told to halt operations and the program was about to be canceled. Seaplanes were a small community in Naval Aviation, and the P6M was significantly over budget and behind schedule and competing with aircraft carriers for funding. The Navy also had a potentially superior system for the nuclear strike role, the Ballistic Missile Submarine.
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