Martin P3M

The Martin P3M was the version of a 1920s maritime patrol flying boat that the Glenn L. Martin Company built for the United States Navy from the Consolidated Model 9 design, which Consolidated Aircraft had flown as the XPY-1 prototype, a parasol monoplane, on 10 January 1929. Because the Navy awarded production contracts separately from prototype contracts, Martin underbid Consolidated and won the order to build the aircraft as the P3M-1 and P3M-2, while Consolidated's refined sesquiplane continued as the P2Y. Martin built one XP3M-1 prototype with three Wright Cyclone engines, three P3M-1 aircraft and six P3M-2 aircraft; the prototype was later modified by removing one engine. The type is a short-lived side branch of early Navy flying boat history, described mainly within the article on the Consolidated P2Y.