Background
Glenn Luther Martin was born to Minta and Clarence Martin on January 17, 1886, at Macksburg, Iowa, United States.
Glenn Luther Martin was born to Minta and Clarence Martin on January 17, 1886, at Macksburg, Iowa, United States.
He attended public schools in Liberal, and later in Salina, Kansas, where the Martin family moved in 1895. After taking courses in business at Kansas Wesleyan University, in 1905 Martin moved to Santa Ana, California.
In Santa Ana, California he established his own auto sales and repair business. The excitement generated by the first flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903 was not lost on Martin.
From early childhood he had been intrigued with the phenomenon of flight, having made himself at six the chief craftsman and neighborhood merchandiser of his own brand of box kite.
In Santa Ana, Martin began to experiment with gliders, flying his own craft and gradually discovering for himself the aerodynamic basis of flight. Using earnings from his auto sales, he built an aircraft powered by a twelve-horsepower engine.
His first flight in this craft, on August 1, 1909, opened to him a new career in exhibition flying and aircraft manufacture. In 1912 Martin, having moved his factory to Los Angeles, made the first extended over-ocean flight, 68 miles (109 km) to Catalina Island and back.
Martin had early seen the military applications of aircraft, and in 1913 he was given a contract by the U. S. War Department to produce the first army training plane. In 1918 the Martin Company pioneered in producing the first of their versatile bombers. Martin himself held the first patents on the free-fall parachute. In recognition of his work, Martin was awarded the Collier Trophy in 1932 and the Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 1940 for the development and production of many types of aircraft, including transport flying boats, navy torpedo and dive bombers, and patrol bombers.
