Word: bomber
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Last week the Kansas kite builder got an order for some more of his quantity-produced flying machines. The U. S. Army bought a half-million dollars' worth* of Martin 167 attack bombers, two-engine ships that can streak through the air at 360 m.p.h., tote a ton of bombs, maneuver against the nimblest pursuit ship in the air. It was no two-bit order, but it was not big enough to give pleasure to Glenn Luther Martin. He had hoped to fill the $15,000,000 bomber order which the War Department simultaneously placed with his big competitor...
...Glenn L. Martin Co. was in Cleveland and its president had virtually quit flying. From that plant came the first Martin bomber, a huge, two-engined biplane. Built too late to get into the War, the first Martin bomber went to the Air Service. A great cranelike thing that drifted in stodgily to its landings, it was the standard bombardment plane of the service until the middle...
...Martin turned out better & better models in rapid succession. He swapped little information with other manufacturers, became known as a sombre lone wolf. From the Cleveland plant came the first plane built specifically for mail service, the first metal American monoplane, of which the Navy bought 36, the first bomber with an alloy-steel fuselage, of which the Navy bought...
...naval orders the Martin plant also turned out the first clippers for Pan American's Pacific run, huge, four-engined flying boats. Meanwhile, with pursuit ships getting faster & faster, practical, businesslike Glenn Martin laid down another job for his designers. What was now needed, he said, was a bomber that could defend itself against fighters. Since it could no longer outspeed them, its only chance to stay in the air lay in giving it enough maneuverability and fire power to hold its own in aerial combat...
...ship had flown, however, the news of its spectacular 10,000-mile cruising range was out, and the Navy, one of Consolidated^ best customers, poked in its nose. At week's end it appeared likely that Model 31's first assignment will be as a patrol bomber for the fleet...