American Aerospace Archive No.1
Martin JRM Mars Flying Boat - Commercial Projects of 1944

by Jared Zichek

Reviewed by Mick Evans

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This new publication from American Aerospace Archive Publications is the first issue from Editor Jared Zichek and is based on the commercial airline version of the Martin JRM Mars flying boat.

Unfortunately for the Martin Company their dream of a luxurious “flying hotel” commercial flying boat airliner never came into fruition.  Airline companies were not convinced by the flying hotel concept and bought the less luxurious high volume passenger service.  Also the practicality of land based aircraft was more economical as they did not require specialized terminals and handling equipment.  

The book is printed and distributed by MagCloud.com, a new print on demand service for independent publishers.  MagCloud uses HP indigo technology, producing high quality custom printed magazines which are virtually indistinguishable from those produced by traditional offset press.  Printing on demand means no large and expensive print runs, allowing this editor to cover more obscure and interesting subjects in greater detail than would be possible for larger publishers using traditional means.

The publication is printed in standard A4 format and has 36 pages printed on high quality 80lb semi gloss paper.  The publication is basically a reproduction of a lavish promotional brochure from 1944 when the Martin Company proposed the commercialized version of the world’s largest production flying boat.  The publication contains 65 colour illustrations and photographs most of these portraying the proposed layout, passenger comforts and cargo handling.

The majority of the information is printed as colour illustrations, and in the past this type of publication has not been on my favorite list to buy.  After reading this publication for review I have changed my mind.  It has an excellent balance of technical data, text, illustrations and photographs and when you consider that the passenger variant was purely a concept and never made it into production I found the illustrations to be very interesting.

Of great interest is the layout of the passenger compartments, the cargo handling concepts for the cargo versions, maintenance concepts, but most of all the mooring and docking concepts.

In summary, this is a very concise and complete history of a little known concept for any person who is interested in the history of aerospace research and development in the United States.  I look forward to the next journal from the American Aerospace Archive.

Thanks to Aerospace Archive for the review sample