Qualla: Martin B-10

Martin B-10: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt presented the Collier Trophy to the Glenn L. Martin Company for an airplane that had made every bomber in every air force on Earth obsolete overnight. The Martin B-10 was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to enter regular service with the United States Army Air Corps, and when it flew during trials in June 1932, it did something no bomber had done before: it outran the pursuit fighters tasked with intercepting it. Closed cockpits, rotating gun turrets, retractable landing gear, an internal bomb bay, full engine cowlings -- features that seem elementary today were revolutionary then. Within a few years, every serious bomber design in the world would copy them. But the B-10's own story was just beginning, and it would play out not in American skies but across the war-torn landscapes of China, the Dutch East Indies, and the jungles of Borneo.

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Image: Public domain

Martin B-10: Born in Baltimore

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The B-10 started life as the Martin Model 123, a private venture built at the company's plant in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a gamble. Glenn L. Martin's engineers designed it with a crew of four -- pilot, copilot, nose gunner, and fuselage gunner -- seated in open compartments, a...

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Image: Public domain

Martin B-10: The Alaskan Expedition

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit US Air Force Museum, Public domain. The B-10 earned its reputation not through combat but through endurance. In July 1934, Lieutenant Colonel Henry H. 'Hap' Arnold -- the future five-star general who would command all U.S. Army air forces in World War II -- led ten B-10s on an 8,290-mile round-trip flight from Boll...

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Image: US Air Force Museum | Public domain

Martin B-10: Leaflets Over Nagasaki

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. When the U.S. Army's orders were filled in 1936, Martin received permission to export the bomber, and the B-10 began its second life as a weapon of war in other nations' hands. China purchased nine -- six Model 139WC-1s and three WC-2s -- making the B-10 the fastest aircraft in t...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Martin B-10: Defending the Dutch East Indies

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bill Larkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Netherlands became the B-10's largest foreign customer, purchasing 121 Martin 139 variants to defend the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch strategy was stark: cancel orders for defensive fighters entirely and bet everything on bombers. By December 1941, about 58 Martins were opera...

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Image: Bill Larkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

Martin B-10: A Ghost on a Mountaintop

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NA, Public domain. Today, only one complete Martin B-10 survives, displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton, Ohio. It is painted to represent the 1934 Alaskan flight, though the airframe is actually an Argentine export model recovered and restored between 1973 and ...

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Image: NA | Public domain