Glenn L. Martin Company

The Glenn L. Martin Company, known as the Martin Company from 1917 to 1961, was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturer founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin on 16 August 1912 in Santa Ana, California. After a poor merger with the Wright Company in 1916, Martin left and formed a second company on 10 September 1917, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. Its first big success was the MB-1 bomber ordered by the United States Army in January 1918, and it later moved to a new plant in Middle River, Maryland in 1929. In the 1930s it built flying boats for the Navy, including the China Clipper used by Pan American Airways, and the innovative B-10 bomber for the Army. During the 1950s and 1960s it moved into guided missiles and space work. In 1961 it merged with American-Marietta to form Martin Marietta, which merged with Lockheed in 1995 to form Lockheed Martin.