1910s
Traveling Time and Space
Glenn L. Martin and the Loughead brothers, Allan and Malcolm, are just getting off the ground. Literally, in 1909 and 1913, respectively, they complete maiden voyages in their own flying machines to join the ranks of the world's aviation pioneers. They soon forge their own aircraft companies and set up shops in California.
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 1909 Aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin launches the maiden voyage of his first aeroplane, made of silk and bamboo, in Santa Ana, California.
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 1911 Heritage company Sperry successfully tests its first gyrocompass aboard the USS Delaware. It is the first major improvement in direction-finding since the magnetic compass, developed hundreds of years before. The technology wins a Collier Trophy in 1914.
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1912 Allan and Malcolm Loughead form the
Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company.
The Glenn L. Martin Company is officially incorporated in Los Angeles. Among the company's early contributors are engineers Donald Douglas, James McDonnell,
Chance Vought and C.A. Van Dusen, draftsman Dutch Kindelberger and factory manager Larry Bell.
Martin performs the world's first major over-ocean flight--34 miles--in his own hydroplane.
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1913 Aircraft designers Allan and
Malcolm Loughead fly their wood and fabric seaplane over the San Francisco Bay.
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1914 The Glenn L. Martin Company delivers its
first Model TT Trainer planes to the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
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1915 Trying to drum up interest in his aeroplanes, Glenn L. Martin stars with Mary Pickford and his Model T plane in A Girl of Yesterday.
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1916 The Loughead brothers establish the Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California.
The Glenn L. Martin Company merges with the Wright Company to form the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company.
Sperry introduces advanced aircraft instruments, including compass, air speed indicator, altimeter, bank indicator, angle of attack and stall warning. A compass synchronized drift site wins Elmer Sperry a Collier Trophy.
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1917 Backed by a group of Ohio investors that included the owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team, Glenn Martin pulls out of the Wright-Martin Company and reestablishes the Glenn L. Martin Company in Ohio.
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1918 The Loughead F-1 Flying Boat makes its first flight. Loughead makes its first military sale--of Curtiss HS-2L flying boats--to the U.S. Navy.
Martin builds the first twin engine bomber, the MB-2. |
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