Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Early Days of Strategic Bombing

The advent of strategic bombing can be traced back to the earliest days of aviation. As aircraft evolved from fragile flying machines into powerful bombers capable of carrying heavy payloads, visionaries began to recognize their potential to strike targets far behind enemy lines. During World War I, while airplanes were still primitive, the seeds of strategic bombing were already being sown.

Both the Allies and Central Powers conducted the first tentative bombing raids, attempting to disrupt industrial production and damage morale. The results were modest at best. With no navigation aids beyond visual sighting, day bombing was the only option. Accuracy suffered and bomb loads were severely limited. Nonetheless, these pioneering air campaigns pointed the way forward.

In the period between the wars, air power enthusiasts like Italy's Giulio Douhet, America's Billy Mitchell and Britain's Hugh Trenchard wrote extensively about the decisive potential of strategic bombing. They argued that directly striking the enemy's vital centers from the air could bypass static trench warfare and achieve victory rapidly. This controversial vision found little support from conservative military establishments. Nonetheless, it captured the imagination of the public.

During the interwar period, basic capabilities for strategic bombing developed haltingly. Radios and bombsights for navigation and targeting appeared. Speeds increased from under 100 to over 200 mph. Bomb loads grew from a few hundred pounds to many thousands. Big multi-engine bombers like the British Handley Page Type O and the American B-17 Flying Fortress entered service.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Martin Takes Flight

As strategic bombing moved from concept to reality between the wars, one aircraft manufacturer was perfectly positioned to lead the charge. Glenn L. Martin, a daring barnstormer turned aeronautical engineer, established the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company in 1912. Martin was obsessed with building bigger and faster planes. His bombers and seaplanes set numerous records, including the first airmail delivery.

When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Martin had developed America's largest bomber, the MB-1. Though too late for combat, it proved Martin's capabilities. Throughout the 1920s, the company specialized in building mail planes and Navy bombers. Martin's designs pushed the boundaries of size, range and reliability. By 1934, when the Army Air Corps issued requirements for the next generation of American bombers, Martin was poised to deliver.

Competing against Boeing, Douglas and Northrop, Martin created the model 149. This colossal four-engine beauty could carry five tons of bombs 3,000 miles at over 200 mph. The Army was deeply impressed. In January 1939, Martin secured a contract for an initial order of 13 B-10 bombers, which became the backbone of U.S. air power prior to World War II.

Martin's B-10 bomber was revolutionary. Its payload exceeded anything in the Army's inventory. State-of-the-art turbosupercharged engines provided excellent high altitude performance. For defense, the B-10 boasted five gun turrets with remote sighting stations, a true offensive weapon. Additionally, its monoplane cantilever wing gave the B-10 exceptional range, speed and maneuverability for a bomber.

With Europe and Asia descending into war, America rushed to re-arm. The Army Air Corps clamored for more B-10s. Martin ramped up production, delivering a total of 175 by 1942. Though the B-10 was eventually surpassed by allied bombers like the B-17, it pioneered capabilities that came to define American air power. The B-10 also validated Martin's position as an essential strategic partner for the military.

During World War II, Martin produced nearly 11,000 B-26 Marauder medium bombers, about one sixth of all U.S. warplane production. After the war, Martin continued building trailblazing bombers, from the B-48 to the mighty B-57 Canberra. Throughout the Cold War, Martin bombers stood as the backbone of America's nuclear deterrent.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Revolutionary Design of the NBS-1

The Martin NBS-1 stands out as one of the most innovative bomber designs of the interwar period. While retaining a conventional biplane configuration, the NBS-1 incorporated numerous revolutionary features that pushed the boundaries of aviation technology in the late 1920s.

Foremost among these was the NBS-1’s immense size. With a wingspan of 126 feet and length of 91 feet, it dwarfed every other bomber in U.S. service at the time. This gigantic airframe provided space for fuel tanks that gave the NBS-1 an unheard of range over 2,000 miles – the first American bomber capable of reaching Europe from North America.

To lift such massive weight off the ground, the NBS-1 employed the latest structural engineering advances. Its wings consisted of state-of-the-art corrugated duralumin, an ultra-strong aluminum alloy. The expansive wing area enabled the NBS-1 to stay airborne despite a loaded weight over 20,000 pounds.

Four huge 525 horsepower Packard diesel engines powered the NBS-1. Diesels represented cutting-edge aeronautical technology in 1929, providing excellent fuel efficiency. Their reliability was a concern at first, but the NBS-1’s engines proved dependable. With no vulnerable ignition systems, they were also safer for long overwater flights.

Another innovative aspect of the NBS-1 was its extensive defensive armament. Seven machine gun emplacements provided all-around coverage to fend off enemy pursuit planes. The tail gunner manned a .50 caliber mount on a new powered turret for wide fields of protective fire.

However, the most important advance was the NBS-1’s bomb sighting system. Previously, American bombers lacked any method for precision bombing. But the NBS-1 introduced the revolutionary Norden bombsight. Using gyroscopes and analog computers for stabilization, it enabled accurate bombing from high altitudes.

This represented a tremendous leap ahead for American air power. With the Norden bombsight, the NBS-1 could conduct true strategic bombing rather than mere terror raids or harassment bombing. This gave American commanders the capability to destroy specific ground targets like industrial factories, rail yards and enemy airfields.

The NBS-1 bomber was far more sophisticated than the primitive biplanes comprising the rest of America’s fledgling air force in the late 1920s. Its cutting-edge features aligned perfectly with the concepts of strategic bombing theorized by visionaries like Billy Mitchell.

The NBS-1 provided clear evidence of aviation technology rapidly maturing between the wars. Its capabilities ushered in a new era when aircraft could decisively impact wars rather than merely playing a supporting role.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Teething Troubles Ground the Bomber

Right from the start, its extreme size caused problems. Martin had designed the NBS-1 bomber to maximize fuel capacity and bomb load at the expense of maneuverability. But its huge wingspan and tail surfaces made the NBS-1 almost impossible to handle during takeoffs and landings. Severe directional instability led to multiple runway accidents and damage during test flights. Pilots struggled mightily to control the behemoth bomber in crosswinds.

Always on the bleeding edge, the NBS-1’s engines were plagued with defects. Cracks in the cylinders caused persistent oil leaks and overheating issues. Maintenance crews constantly battled corrosion in the corrosive diesel exhaust manifolds. Unreliable electric fuel pumps had to be supplemented with mechanical pumps prone to failure.

Most seriously, the NBS-1's innovative Norden bombsight simply did not work properly. Mechanical gyros were unable to stabilize the bombsight in the bumpy, vibrating environment aloft. Accuracy suffered badly, with bombs often missing targets by a quarter mile or more during testing. Bombardiers struggled to operate the complex analog bombing computer.

The Army Air Corps had staked its long-range bombing strategy on the capabilities of the Norden bombsight. Its failure to function correctly on the NBS-1 was a major setback. With no accurate way to destroy distant targets, the NBS-1 offered little advantage over existing bombers.

Even when the temperamental engines cooperated, the NBS-1 struggled to meet its projected performance goals. Weighing far more than originally planned, it was woefully underpowered. Top speed barely reached 110 mph, far short of its expected 140 mph. Ceiling and climb rates were also subpar.

In short, for all its innovations, the NBS-1 simply did not work very well. The Army Air Corps ultimately declined to order any bombers beyond the two prototypes. An advanced concept plagued by technical shortcomings, the NBS-1 never saw active squadron service.

Despite its failure, the NBS-1 still represented a tremendously bold leap into the future of strategic bombing. The lessons learned from its difficulties blazed a trail for practical follow-on designs. Its ambitious attempt to push the envelope taught Martin Aircraft and the Army Air Corps invaluable lessons in high-altitude bombing.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Too Little, Too Late for WWI

When Boeing's revolutionary B-17 Flying Fortress entered service in the late 1930s, it was rightly hailed as the airplane that made the concept of high-altitude precision bombing a reality. The B-17 became an icon of American air power during World War II, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft.

But the B-17's capabilities had originally been envisioned over a decade earlier in the ambitious design of the Martin NBS-1. Had it worked as intended, the NBS-1 could have brought strategic bombing into play years before the B-17.

Aviation visionaries like Billy Mitchell argued passionately during the 1920s that long-range bombers could strike crushing blows against an enemy nation's industrial capacity and transportation network. However, the primitive biplanes and lumbering triplanes of World War I lacked the performance for true strategic bombing.

Mitchell ruffled feathers by claiming air power could single-handedly win wars. But the NBS-1 lent credibility to his vision. On paper, it possessed the range, speed and payload to conduct long-distance bombing campaigns beyond the reach of fighters.

Unfortunately, its development suffered repeated delays and setbacks. Despite being awarded a contract in 1926, the NBS-1 did not fly until nearly three years later in 1929. Chronic engine problems, instability and defective bombsights hampered testing throughout 1930.

By the time these defects had finally been ironed out, Mitchell's controversial court martial was already underway in late 1931. Despite demonstrating its potential, the NBS-1 could not deliver in time to tilt the debate over air power in Mitchell's favor.

Had the NBS-1 gone directly into full production, it could have given the Army Air Corps a real long-range bombing capability as tensions rose in Europe and Asia. But with war clouds looming, there was no time to rectify its deficiencies.

When Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, the NBS-1 was long retired from service. Only a handful of the new B-17 bombers were operational. America entered World War II with global bombing still an unproven concept.

The NBS-1 pointed the way forward. But it arrived a decade too late to showcase the possibilities of air power in combat. Through no fault of its own pioneering design, the NBS-1 missed the opportunity to shake up orthodox military thinking during the interwar period.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Potential for the Next Big War

The disappointing performance of the Martin NBS-1 bomber meant that long-range strategic bombing remained an unproven concept at the dawn of World War II. But visionaries like General Billy Mitchell always intended the NBS-1 as merely the first step on the road to true global air superiority. Its advanced capabilities offered a tantalizing glimpse at the potential future of offensive air warfare.

Given rapid progress in aviation technology throughout the 1920s and 30s, strategists realized that aircraft would only continue to fly higher, faster, and farther in the coming decades. Bombers able to strike any target on Earth with impunity seemed inevitable. The next major war, they predicted, would see strategic bombing play a dominant, decisive role.

Wars are often won and lost based on industrial production and economic capacity. A large, determined nation could potentially overwhelm any opponent by harnessing its manufacturing base to churn out vast fleets of advanced bombers. Just a thousand state-of-the-art bombers, dropping hundreds of tons of bombs each day, could quickly obliterate an enemy's infrastructure beyond recovery. Fighter planes would be helpless to stop them.

This terrifying vision of total strategic bombardment became a source of national pride. Americans saw it as key to defending democracy against fascist aggression in the years leading up to World War II. But it also sparked an arms race, as rival powers rushed to field their own long-range bombers.

The NBS-1 proved that the required technology already existed. Now each nation raced to build more advanced bombers, hoping to stay a step ahead of their enemies. It was clear that possessing the latest bombers would be a vital determining factor in the inevitable global conflict.

In this context, the failure of the NBS-1 took on major geopolitical significance. It set back American efforts, while giving rivals crucial time to develop their own strategic bombers. When war finally erupted, the skies would belong to whichever nation mastered four-engine heavy bombers first.

Despite its abortive career, the very existence of the futuristic NBS-1 bomber so early signaled the beginning of a new airpower arms race. Its ambitions directly inspired the development of superior successors like the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-29 Superfortress. But it also drove competing nations to produce their own advanced bombers even faster.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - Legacy as a Prototype and Testbed

The disappointing early retirement of the Martin NBS-1 bomber could have condemned it to the dustbin of aviation history. But despite its flaws and failures in the field, the NBS-1 provided invaluable service to America’s long-term strategic bombing goals by blazing trails in engineering and technology. It advanced multiple key capabilities that were further refined in subsequent generations of aircraft.

During the rapid evolution of aviation in the 1920s and 30s, innovative new designs often stumbled on their first attempt. Yet the experience gained was itself tremendously useful for iterative improvement. The extensive teething troubles encountered by the NBS-1 lent crucial insights into the challenges of building reliable long-range bombers.

For example, cracking cylinder heads and oil leaks revealed the difficulties of scaling up engines to produce ever more horsepower. Creative solutions were developed, like improved cooling jackets and bearings, which were incorporated into the next generation of aviation power plants. The NBS-1’s troublesome corrugated duralumin wings also showed the limits of then-current metal aircraft construction, spurring advances in materials and monocoque stressed-skin techniques.

The unstable handling and stiff control forces at low speeds prompted wind tunnel research into tail design and control surface size. More powerful hydraulic actuators resulted, improving handling qualities. Defective electric fuel pumps were superseded by mechanical designs with backup hand pumps.

The NBS-1’s shortcomings provided a critical roadmap for maturing technologies essential to practical long-range bombing. Its pioneering role as a testbed aircraft advanced American capabilities across a wide front.

Had the NBS-1 been an operational success, these underlying flaws may have gone unaddressed for years. But its well-publicized developmental struggles highlighted areas needing intensive refinement. With war looming, aircraft designers attacked these problems with renewed vigor.

Feedback from NBS-1 flight testing proved invaluable for turning strategic bombing from theory into reality. It validated conceptual breakthroughs like diesel engines, retractable landing gear, defensive turrets, and monoplane wings. But it also revealed practical engineering challenges to be solved.

Later bombers like the B-17 and B-29 incorporated major advances in all these areas directly driven by lessons from the NBS-1. Without its influential role as a proving ground and pathfinder, American bombers may have lagged dangerously behind rival designs from Germany and Japan.

So while it never dropped a bomb in action, the very existence of such an ambitious forerunner blazed crucial trails. The NBS-1 set the stage for rapid, real-world aeronautical progress in the decade leading up to WWII. Its visionary technology pointed the way forward.

Wings of War: The Martin NBS-1 Bomber, America's First Step Toward Strategic Air Power - NBS-1 Opens the Door to Strategic Air Power

Despite its lackluster performance, the ambitious NBS-1 deserves recognition as the airplane that first cracked open the door for American strategic bombing. It was the first honest attempt to translate the theories of airpower visionaries into physical reality. For all its flaws, the sheer audacity of the NBS-1 bomber's capabilities proved that global reach was truly within grasp.

Billy Mitchell's controversial push for long-range bombing in the 1920s was dismissed by hidebound military leaders. But Glenn Martin shared Mitchell's maverick spirit. He bet heavily on the same vision of decisive strikes against enemy homelands from bases thousands of miles away. The massive, state-of-the-art NBS-1 bomber embodied this aggressive new doctrine.

So while the temperamental NBS-1 failed to live up to expectations, it could not be ignored. Top brass had to acknowledge that stunning progress in aviation was rapidly enabling strategic bombing. Aircraft would soon be able to fly above the reach of defenses and strike anywhere with impunity.

The NBS-1 proved the basic engineering challenges had all been solved, from its immense 126-foot wingspan to its 2,000-mile range. Had its engines and bombsight been up to the task, it could have executed real bombing campaigns across oceans. This enormous potential was undeniable.

Forward-thinking airmen realized the NBS-1 was merely the first rough draft of a revolutionary new mode of warfare. Its failure simply spurred designers to perfect the practical details. By the time war clouds gathered over Europe and Asia, Martin and other firms like Boeing were ready with more advanced bombers.

Like the Wright Flyer, the rickety NBS-1 did not look capable of changing the world in 1929. But it clearly confirmed that aviation technology was accelerating exponentially. The next war would see strategic bombing on an apocalyptic scale, whether the traditionalists liked it or not.

So the NBS-1 deserves honors for forcing the military to wake up to coming realities. After its example, air-minded innovators no longer seemed like radicals or dreamers. Their visions of long-range bombing gained mainstream legitimacy.

Congress recognized the inevitability of strategic air warfare as tensions mounted abroad. Lawmakers approved enormous budgets for bomber development, ctypeating entirely new USAAF units devoted to the mission. Industry went into high gear improving designs the NBS-1 proved were feasible.

No individual airplane, even the vaunted B-17, did more to open the door for this profound change in military doctrine. The NBS-1 set the wheels irrevocably in motion. It offered undeniable proof of concept that finally overcame institutional inertia.