Oct 162008
On display at the Glenn L. Martin Museum is this small model, depicting a… something. The model comes with no documentation. Could be a bomber, could be a fighter. But with four engines, and the relatively wide-looking cockpit, I’m guessing bomber… and I’m guessing a B-70 competitor. No indication as to scale.
9 Responses to “Martin Mystery Model”
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The canopies look more like fighter or fighter-bomber ones to me.
Yeah, given their size, this could be related to to a Super Hustler/Kingfish type bomber/recon aircraft concept.
The intake design is very unique; you’d expect it to be driving ramjets, not turbojets.
Air coming into the intake at high supersonic velocity is certainly going to have no problem decelerating to subsonic velocity before it reaches the engines given the length of the intake trunking.
Why would a ramjet _want_ subsonic intake air? *RaE*
Maybe one of the Martin proposals for what became the B-58? That wing looks like it could hold a lot of fuel.
“Jagdson Says:
October 18th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Why would a ramjet _want_ subsonic intake air? *RaE*”
Unless you are using a scramjet concept, ramjets operate by combusting subsonic air mixed with fuel. Supersonic airflow can cause them to flame out.
Trying to get the fuel to ignite and the motor stay lit is one of the major challenges of scramjet design.
In most cases, ramjets operating at supersonic speeds use a central shock cone in the intake to decelerate the incoming air to subsonic velocity.
I’m told that the style of “Martin” logo used on the display base began around 1956. If that’s accurate, that puts a “no earlier than” date on the design. 1956 would be too late for a B-58 competitor.
I’m trying to figure out what it is supposed to do and what the max speed is supposed to be.
Is it some sort of very high performance interceptor? It has a large radome on the front.
A F-108 Rapier competitor?
Range can’t be all that great with the four engines in the tail, (J79’s?) but the sweep angle on the wings and tailfins make it look like it’s supposed to go somewhere between Mach-3/4, as does the very smooth-in cockpit canopy.
Whatever it is, it’s sure got “sleek” down to a T.
I would rather place it around ATB or in-between. When looking at the canopy as a size indicator, it might be the thing Martin would have proposed, had the interim strategic penetrator role not been filled by the FB-111.
So, we think it’s from 1956 or later. Martin got out of the aircraft business in 1962 after the SeaMaster was canceled, and it merged with Marietta Corp. That might argue against the notion that it’s a proposal for one of the programs that preceded the B-1A, as they came about later in the 1960s.
Big wing, ventral fin, big radome, four engines . . . . definitely curious.