The Nuclear Bomber that Surfed - Martin P6M SeaMaster
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 лип 2021
- The Martin P6M SeaMaster was a strategic bomber flying boat built by the US Navy in the 1950s to form a strong and reliable nuclear weapons delivery system.
After a series of accidents that led to substantial improvements and promising results, the aircraft was pitted against newer technology, having to prove its worth in the face of complex political turmoil.
If successful, the SeaMaster would become the first large aircraft designed explicitly for high subsonic speeds near sea level.
---
Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. - Авто та транспорт
![It Rewrote The Book On Bomber Design | Martin B-10 [Aircraft Overview #43]](/img/n.gif)
Hmmm ... I wish they had kept one for a museum.
Several years ago I saw what little remains at the Smithsonian's Paul E. Garber Facility.
I completely agree with you that one should have been fully preserved.
It's a shame we didn't keep at least one of every plane. There's a lot of great ones that went extinct.
The Navy used to have a bad habit of not preserving historic aircraft. As kid in the 1960s my dad took me to see the Norfork Naval Air Station where the famous "Truculant Turtle P2V was on display and a captured WWII "Emily" Japanese sea plane was being preserved. I later learned the base commander wanted them both scrapped. Today, the Turtle is at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola and the Emily is on display in Japan. Too bad no one intervened for the P6M.
@@uberduberdave I don't recall if I saw _'Truculant Turtle'_ at Pensacola but I have certainly heard of it. Perhaps the move took place after I visited the base.
Anyway, thanks for giving me another reason to visit Japan. :-)
I hope you and all others reading this have a happy Fourth of July. 🇺🇸
@@uberduberdave im saying People please
Historians want to know
Maybe not the best nuclear bombers but I'm in love with flying boats! Aviation without being imprisoned by landing gear and runways unleashes it's full potential
almost like the predecessor of the PBY Catalina.
The footage of some propeller seaplanes was a bit confusing 🤔
"Nuclear Bombers don´t surf."
Colonel Kilgore, drunk.
That's hilarious! Top notch 😎
Did it surf, or did it just go on water?
It's like flying fish or dolphin just fly for short moment then surface again
It's a nuclear poser
Looks like an ekranoplan with proper wings.
I was about to say that. Kaspian Sea Monster was its codename at Langley after it was discovered by the first spy satellite. That satellite was named Corona. Notice how Russia called their vaccine Sputnik V? Weird huh? Edit: reminds me of Saturn V
@@AD-zg7fw Yes, the sea monster v the sea master.
@@jonforris does this mean the Russians were stealing from 1950s defense contractors? Or was this normal parallel research? I believe the year was about 1960 of the Americans discovering the experimental craft of the CCCP. They also cloned the Shuttle Program with the Buran. They obviously did corporate espionage in the 70s and 80s, perhaps even in the 1950s...
@@AD-zg7fw What do you mean by that? Seamaster is NOT an Ekranoplan, its a jet flying boat. Sea Monster is a different type of vehicle, purposely built to ride on air pressure between a surface and wings. Its not a plane either. If yore looking for the same kind of plane in USSR, see beriev Be-10.
Just said the same thing
Another plane I've never heard of, thanks for sharing this. You should make a video about the PBY Catalina, an amazing sea plane.
Arguably the most successful seaplane too
They should try that with the A10, engines are up high already:) “A swarm of A10s came out of the ocean!!”
And nobody was safe ever again.
@@792slayer Peace through strength…
@@eatcommies1375 Peace through superior firepower.
Large RCS
Such a beautiful bird. I tried to find a model of it, then tried making one from pictures as a kid. My skills as a preteen we're not up to the task.
Lol nice
If you're still interested in doing that, it looks like Revell released a kit in the mid-1990s. It seems to be selling for $30-35 online.
@@musewolfman It’s a remake of a vintage one from the 1960. The scale is 1/box. I have a vacu one in 1/72.
Revell made one....98cents at the time.i made one along with the red snark missile
Revell Put out an Off Scale Kit, Which is Still Available; Mach 2 Has A Kit in 1/72 Scale, But Their Kits are very Rough; Anigrand has A Resin Kit in 1/72, But is Very Expensive.
I live in Baltimore and it has always had it's endless locations created and used by the military. The old bases and camps are exciting to tour anytime.
I like these mini-documentaries, but someone REALLY needs to step up their proofreading game.
Talk about the Seamaster, show clips of twin-piston engined seaplane...
"informative" but not always accurate or correct information.
Why inject irrelevant P5M film into this?
And drop the super serious urgent rapid fire way of speaking.
I want to see the catamaran built from wingtip floats. That sounds awesome.
Unfortunately, the floats that were turned into a catamaran are in storage and currently unavailable for viewing by the public. Source: I work for the museum mentioned in the video.
@@fighterjetsensei Well at least they belong to a museum. It wasn't clear in the video. Maybe someday they'll be on display.
@@SalisburySnake Eventually. main reason they're not is a lack of room. The Glenn L Martin Museum is 2 office spaces underneath hangar 5 at Martin State Airport, and all of our aircraft that are on display are on the Strawberry Point section of the airport next to multiple privately rented hangars and the Maryland State Police Aviation hangar.
A boat built from airplane parts. Awesome.
@@fighterjetsensei any pictures or a link? Couldn't find anything on Google...cheers!
So much aviation innovation was cancelled because it wasn't necessary in a world with ICBMs...
Then again, ICBMs got us into space...
But standing military still exists even after they made a lot them. I thought ICBM rendered infantry, fighters and ships obsolete because who wants to send paratroopers or conduct an amphibious assault when ICBM could replace all of that? Then drones already came into scene and vow to replace everything maybe ICBMs will be fully controlled by AI.
@@Joshua_N-A be careful what u wish for! AI 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🛩🛬🛫🛬🛫🛬🛫🛬🛫
Your videos are now my addiction. I LOVE learning about all the planes that I saw as a kid in a book. This is amazing!
Thank you
I also love this shit
Videos are awesome but the narrator sucks, I don't know what kind of psychological malfunction that he has to talk that quick?! That's why I keep giving them a thumbs down everytime they upload a video.
@@MrUNCLESAM84 Odd... he's the only narrator that I've not had to speed up. Normally, I'm at 1.25 or 1.5 speed..
I'm used to the narrator speed and ngl I kinda enjoy it
Amazing footage.. thanks!
Always love learning what's out there. And what happened in the early days. Impressive.
One of my favorites. Its so cool!!
This and the Sea Dart are two aircraft on my _'Should've been put into full-scale production/use and preserved in museums'_ list.
It is a little eyebrow raising when you include film of the Mariner when the Sea Master is the focus. It is obvious that they are two different aircraft.
There may not have been enough footage of the P6M available to fill the video without repeating too many times.
@@musewolfman I can understand that but would it have killed him to include "...in the same manner as the Martin Mariner..." while the Mariner was on screen?
It is also possible that the script is written and recorded before they went looking for the imagery to accompany it and only later realized "oops, we can't find footage that matches."
It is a minor thing and it has happened a lot of times in Hollywood films. It is just a pet peeve of mine, like when they're talking about B-17 Flying Fortresses and then show a formation of B-24 Liberators. In that case, it is simply laziness because there is ample footage of B-17 formations in flight.
Anyway it's 2 minutes past Midnight which means it is now Saturday and officially the weekend. So hurray!
Neat. I love your videos - thanks for taking the time to make and share them!
The last time I saw plumes of exhaust like that it was from a VW
Wow, I had no idea the jet-powered, four-engine SeaMaster repeatedly could "morph" into a propeller-driven, two-engine seaplane (a Martin P5M?) LIKE MAGIC!!!
[Nb. Unless, of course, that was the usual "Dark Skies" approach, e.g., we don't give a damn if the photos have nothing to do with the content?]
Thanks
An advanced technology bomber designed and built in Baltimore. Can you imagine that happening today? I can't.
I'm digging these sea planes. Let's see more!
Amazing, very interesting, thank you.
Thanks for this 👍✈️
I love your videos, I really don't comment much here because you do an immaculate job, clean and concise. The music was a tad much this time at about the 1/2 mark. Your voice and style are all that's needed.
Waiting for the dark seas episode on that catamaran
VERY interesting! I have never heard of this effort. Upon first observation of the craft, I was reminded of the akronoplan design but realized this was a flying boat.
I'm surprised they don't use sea planes more often nowadays....
You know, that seaplanes have not only advantages, but also disadvantages. 🤷🤷🤷
@@user-cl4kc4st7z Depends on how you plan to employ them.
we have tomahawk missiles and stealth bombers. They use to have float planes off of navy vessels. Now we have helicopters.
@Frank Dux if you really need something - you will find ways to get it.
Nazi trisks to get petrol proofed that.
The more important things: it's not so reliable (hurricane or another bad weather transform your cool (and expensive) seaplane into big piece of metal+another materials, that need protection).
Another big issue: it's water-oriented (it's really good, if around 71% percents of globe is your airfield, but don't forget about disadvantages: I doubt that water landing didn't influenced it's behaviour in the sky (at least: less speed, higher fuel consumption).
@Frank Dux I can see 2 main field to operate it:
Airstrikes of some coastal areas (if you don't have enough suitable airfields nearby (with wide network of military bases around the world it's rare situation, but if that happens - American army is in troubles because without enough close air support war would be more long and more infantry and marines would pay with their lives for it:
I don't rely much on russian sources of information, but Олег Капцов once told about problems with close fire support at the
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beqaa_Valley
Situation was solved by 406 mm main guns of battleship, that stayed nearby, but if enemy wasn't in range of naval guns...)
Great concept-love seaplanes
Another airplane I knew vey little about. Thanks for the great video.
Good show dude!
This would have been a great forest fire fighting aircraft.
Holy smokes that's a really great point
There are the russian Beriev Seaplanes, too!😉 Some with Turboprop, some with Jet turbines...
Always a fan of the background music.
I always thought that the seaplane technology was cool. Too bad they are almost gone.
Now you have to do a video on the SeaMaster's escort- the Convair F2Y Sea Dart!
Only supersonic seaplane I believe.
As a kid I remember seeing and hearing the Seamaster. My dad worked at Glen L. Marting in Middle River. I have many pictures of the Seamaster and built the kit years ago. I am now 77 and buiding another model of the Seamaster that was reissued under the Atlantis Model Company.
Great idea
Fascinating aircraft
The most graceful, beautiful heavy EVER.
I love it!
Makes the Ekranoolan seem a little less crazy. Speaking of crazy, I still find the concept of aircraft powered by nuclear engines terrifying
Thank you for reporting.
should make a video on the JRM mars flying boats, great history and some are still functional today!
Used by a Canadian forest fire fighting company on Vancouver Island based in lake Cowichan
@@The67wheelman Sproat Lake actually, currently not used (haven't been since around 2015 if I recall correctly) and owned by Coulson Group.
@@johncurtis2734 knew someone would know more than I, sad our govt never see’s it as a national fire defence tool and never subsidized it. Same old same old
@@The67wheelman It really is. I'm currently at our place on Sproat looking out directly at the water bomber base, and I work for the BC Gov so I see firsthand how difficult it is to get them in the air. Really a travesty.
@@johncurtis2734 we really could have used it on the fort Mac fire but Notley in her wisdom declined 🙄
Informative. Beautiful isn't always the best.
Maybe the best looking flying boat ever
Very cool
After seeing that imagine a B 52 flying boat
Several flying boats had a greater wingspan then the B-52. The Spruce Goose is almost double. (320ft vs 185ft)
There were studies of a seaplane version of the Boeing model 377 (liner derived from the xc-99 military transport, derived from the B-36).
The b36 leading edge inlets for the engine cooling were on top of the leading edges, and the horizontal tail moved up a bit.
There were studies and flying models of a seaplane C-130, both with stepped boat hull and with big flat skis.
See also the YC-134E by Chase/Stroukhoff: a C-123 upgraded with boundary layer control for STOL and un-stepped slightly stronger hull and skis that let it operate from runways or any flat unimproved ground, water, snow/ice, sand, swamp etc.
amazing
Very Good!..
Those aircraft are so badass
Why are piston engined seaplanes repeatedly interspersed in this report?
See my post above.
[Dark Skies don't care what it uses for "photo filler." And most "fans" of DS are too ignorant to know the difference.
In this instance, you should consider yourself lucky that the "other plane" was a twin-engine Martin seaplane, rather than than something like a Loening OL.
@@Neilistic1001 not exactly, in their channel description it says that they might not have enough videos / immages of the topic craft, so they use film of similar craft to fill in some of the gaps.
@@gjantonio It's a solution, of sorts. Just not a very good one.
Looks like a “watered down” Victor
With a B52 nose lol
Cool looking aircraft
It was an interesting concept, if flawed.
One of my requests!
Must have been a hell of an interesting company to work for, such advanced ideas and the bravado to pursue some out of the box thinking. Great story, well told
This was such a neat plane.
Big like! Undestructible runways... What a thoughtfulness! Destroying an airport's runways makes all the aircrafts sitting ducks!
This has always been my favorite plane ever
dam that looked nice
It seems like the reason so many planes that never were was because the planned engines weren't available so less than ideal engines are substituted.
That's unfortunately true. It's actually far easier to design a superlative airframe than a suitably powerful and reliable engine to power it...😞
What a shame no prototype was preserved for history
If it was a swept wing then it surely looks like a B1 Lancer taking a surf
Kinda looks like and reminds me of a MUCH smaller Soviet Ekranoplan, but being able to fly WAY higher and VERY MUCH faster!
I’ve always considered that seaplane nuclear weapon delivery system as a smart project for its time.
It’s deployment and mobile basing were a plus when considering countering an atomic first strike by the Soviets back during the Cold War.
Also the aircraft looked very sleek and powerful considering its really just a floatplane.
They also were simultaneously developing a tactical seaplane fighter aircraft, the Martin F2Y Sea Dart to complement it’s “sister” P6M floatplane strike bomber but I understand it was also plagued with technical problems.
The knowledge of seaplane limitations have been known since day one.
Little known fact about the P6M, Adm Rickover was known to hate the P6M and believed that the Navy had no business having a nuclear capable bomber, surprisingly he had asked to see a demonstration of the plane and it was hoped that after he saw what the plane was capable of, he would give his support and approval of the program, instead he pulled up to the plane,looked at it then drove off, never getting out of his car. Sad to see what could have been.
Incredibile fantastic jet 👽👽👽
Such a beautiful airframe. Its a shame that the materials and technology of the day hindered its development.
I just found out about this. Amazing. Wow.
Anybody else just watch the nuclear aircraft carrier?
As with all of your videos, this one is excellent. Thank you!
How many different piston engine powered sea planes are you going to show while talking about the jet powered P6M1? Just curious.
The Philippines is developing a sea hovering aircraft will minus the nuclear weapons
Beautiful plane. Wish they kept one.
Some Canadian Army CH-47 Chinook Helicopter were painted the same scheme as the Sea master for a couple of years, i know so my cousin was a pilot. His best advice when piloting a Chinook -'' trust your rear end''
Flying experimental aircraft was a dangerous game.
It can still come back!
I had no idea of this one! Roo bad it was scrapped!
The us in 1950: “bombers don’t surf and we think they should.
This would be a great coastline transport
I suspect this would have been an aircraft that became quickly obsolete even if it had made it into service but it's a very elegant looking aircraft, and very sad to hear none survive, especially given it was the last aircraft developed by Martin.
For how scary seaplane strike forces are, see the '50s design by Myasischev M-70 supersonic dash seaplane bomber.
Seaplane striking forces are dangerous for the defenders and make an attacker's job easier.
For every big CVN you can build a dozen LPDs and kits for turning merchant ships into seaplane tenders, and any open water spot can become a temporary airbase with CAP and penetration escort fighters and ASW, AEW and logistics planes supporting a strike. Spot 60 planes and take all of them off at once.
WOW
Totally amazing aircraft. Deserved to have one prototype survive. Has anyone noticed that the narrator sounds like Chakotay from Start Trek Voyager.
Now make a video in dark seas about the USS United States super carrier
They should build a C141 seaplane for fast beach assaults. It would be dammed hard to know where they'd land troops until the plane touches water. Would need a 20mm Vulcan turret to strafe the treeline as it comes in.
Hold on.....
This thing was subsonic even with afterburners?
Not that unusual for early
‘50’s aircraft.
It was the 50s only fighters were supersonic.
The later model with the quoted .89 Mach speed used new engines with no afterburner.
I love the intense beginning music.
Have you ever done a video on the p2 Neptune or Aj savage?
I really wish you credited the music. it was nice, this one.
I wish there was more history. My Uncle Bob was the pilot of #2 when it had it's issues.
Would be nice display mate for the sea drart in SD
This project would seem to be well worth bringing back to life. With modern engines, the 1"
skin and the possibility they had come up with an amphibious version, a plane like this might have
a life span as long as the B52,
Couldn't quite understand why some of the footage switched from jet to prop driven. Was this an early prototype produced prior to the jet version.?
Exceptional machine.
Never should have been scraped.
With todays tech these things could erase carrier groups.
We could also have airport free travel for all coastal cities.
Do the ju 287 or 288 would love to see those jet bombers
Nice design. Could have had a use as a fire bomber like the Be200 maybe?
still has valid application in rough concept