Martin, Mitchell and GMB-1

The aviation career of Glenn L. Martin (1886-1953) included inventions ranging from parachutes in 1913 to cruise missiles in 1953. His first bomber aircraft, the Glenn Martin Bomber No. 1(GMB-1) was not only a breakthrough for American military aviation but a testament to its pioneering crew.

The Glenn Martin Bomber Number One (GMB-1)

Martin designed the U.S. Army Air Service’s (USAAS’) first American built bomber, GMB-1, as a prototype that he hoped would result in future military contracts. The large open-cockpit bomber held a crew of five — a single gunner’s seat at the nose, two side-by-side pilots in front of the wing sections, and two side-by-side seats for the gunners aft of the wings. With a wing span of 71 feet and length of more than 46 feet, the aircraft stood 14 feet off the ground. The fuselage was wood and fabric with a metal prow-shaped nose. With two 400hp Liberty engines, its average cruising speed was about 80 mph. 

Second in command of the USAAS after WWI was Brig. Gen. “Billy” Mitchell [1898-1936]. He was determined to demonstrate the advantages of military air power in a spectacular public relations stunt using GMB-1. Mitchell ordered the GMB-1 crew to fly the perimeter of the U.S., landing in fields and prairies near towns along the route to lay out municipal airports for the first time. Officially, the mission objective was to test fly the Liberty engines, evaluate the overall reliability of the GMB-1, convince local authorities to build an airfield for their towns, and observe ways the bomber design could be improved. They were also to identify unchartered areas for which they would gather important mapping data. Unofficially, the crew was a flying billboard for the U.S. Air Service. 

The crew consisted of Lt. Col. R.S. Hartz; 1st Lt. Lotha A. Smith, reserve military aviator (RMA); 2nd Lt. Ernest “Tiny” Harmon, RMA; Sgt. John “Jack” Harding, master electrician; and Sgt. Jarosla “Jerry” Dobias, master mechanic. 

On July 24, 1919, GMB-1 left Bolling Field near Washington, D.C., on a four-month “Rim Flight” adventure, encountering everything from frostbite to a major crash landing. Aircraft repairs by Harding and Dobias were perilous and innovative.

    

Remarkable Repairs

On the third day out, the pilots navigated through a violent thunderstorm and lost their compass when the magnets fell off mid-flight. At 12,000 feet, the right engine began to run rough. Dobias and Harding huddled in the rear gunner’s pit, second-guessing the cause of the problem. Dobias stepped out onto the wing to inspect the motor and made some adjustments with the hammer and chisel that Harding handed to him. The engine ran smoother but Harmon was forced to land in a remote New York field where GMB-1’s nose dug into the ground due to a collapsed landing gear. (The only crew injury was to Smith’s ankle.) The engines and props escaped ruin, but besides the shattered nose, damage included blown tires, broken struts, bent axles, broken wing ribs and rigging wires, and tears to 50 percent of the fuselage fabric. Both engines were unmounted and sat in the weeds, protected by a tarp. When the new parts from Martin’s factory arrived at the crash site, the crew welcomed the willing hands of locals to dig a pit which allowed positioning of the aircraft for access to replace the metal nose. The trip continued counter-clockwise following the U.S. perimeter with continual challenges.

The crew of GMB-1 returned home on Nov. 9, 1919, with little fanfare. Hartz’s log book detailed the journey which has since been published in “The Around the Rim Flight,” by Miriam Orr Seymour. Despite Seymour’s research, GMB-1’s fate following 1924 remains unknown.

The Crew of GMB-1

Harding was chosen as the mechanic for the Douglas World Cruiser, New Orleans, one of four similar aircraft which attempted to make the first flight around the world in 1924. The huge biplanes with 400hp Liberty engines which began the journey over land and sea from Seattle were the Boston, New Orleans, Seattle, and Chicago. Only the New Orleans and the Chicago completed the entire 27,533 mile flight. Harding and his 1924 crew have been honored in the First Flight Shrine at the Wright Brothers National Monument, Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Harmon continued his military aviation career as a test pilot and competed in the International Air Races. He was a tall, strong man who left a legacy as large as himself. He ran out of fuel during a test flight between Maryland and Long Island in 1933. He was killed in the crash landing in Connecticut. A U.S. Air Force base in Newfoundland, Canada, was renamed Ernest Harmon Air Base in 1948. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Hartz, flight commander of the Rim Flight, was in charge of pilot training for the Air Service under Mitchell. He continued his long military career with distinction after the Rim Flight. Described by author Seymour, Hartz had “a reputation for doing the impossible.”

Smith has often been confused with other famous fliers with the same last name. (Lowell H. Smith piloted the Douglas World Cruiser “Chicago” in 1924.) Smith continued his military career at the rank of Lt. Colonel in the 28th Bombardment Group, which was based at March Field in  California during 1940. 

 

Giacinta Bradley Koontz is an aviation historian, magazine columnist and author who has received the DAR History Medal and Honorable Mention from the New York Book Festival. She has appeared on the History Channel and in PBS documentaries. For more information, visit www.GiaBKoontz.com.

 

Gen. “Billy” Mitchell [1898-1936] was assigned to the Signal Corps at the age of 38 in 1916, the same year he took private flying lessons. He was sent to the front in 1917, organized what small U.S. air power existed and eventually commanded all American combat units in France. From his return to the U.S. in 1919 until 1925, he battled against his superiors, as he fought for a separate Air Force. Conflicts eventually resulted in a court martial for insubordination. Rather than face five years of inactive duty without pay, Mitchell resigned. He never regained influence and died in 1936, before the U.S. Air Force was separated from the Army and Navy.

Mitchell criticized the military for its lack of appreciation for aircraft mechanics as a specialized profession. The following comes from “Winged Defense – The Development and Possibilities of Modern Air Power Economic and Military”, his book which was published in 1925, at the height of his controversial career.

“The pilot is not the only part of the personnel of aviation that needs high specializations. The mechanics that keep the airplane in the air in their way are as important as the pilot. An air mechanic is entirely different from any kind of a soldier or sailor. He is a specialist in the mechanics of an airplane, the engine, the rigging of the airplane, the upkeep of its armaments and guns, its radio telegraphy, its photographic apparatus, the oxygen for use in high altitudes and of the instruments that have to be used in navigation. These experts should form about one-half of the total enlisted part of an Air Force ... On my first visit to our air troops along the border after my return from Europe in 1919, I found cowboys who had barely taken their spurs off, attempting to keep the Liberty motors in order. Imagine what a proceeding of this kind means to the pilots who have to fly the machines. Mechanics in an Air Force should receive compensation equal to what expert mechanics get in civil life and should be housed and cared for on a scale which is the equivalent of the living conditions of the expert mechanic in civil life.”

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