From La Matanza to Ohio (5/5): At the USAF Museum

The Martin is exhibited inside the USAF Museum, conmemorating the YB-10 USAAC 33-146, that was a part of the Washington-Fairbanks-Washington historical flight.

Consequently, it is painted in the blue-yellow scheme of the Army Air Corps of the 30s.

Until early 1934, U.S. military aircraft  were painted in two different colours: light blue for trainers and olive green for tactical aircraft.

This caused logistics problems that forced to have stocks of both colours and also made necessary to know the roles the aircraft played to paint them correctly.

In January, 1934, the Head of the Material Division adopted a simpler criteria: Regardless of the role they were used for, all aircraft were painted in a two-colour scheme (light blue for the fuselage and chrome yellow for the wings and tail).

When the aircraft were to be used in a tactical role, a camouflage water paint coat would be applied (this made unnecessary to keep stocks of olive green paint).

For practical reasons, the repainting process was gradual, when the aircraft were overhauled, and lasted for several years.

The black and White photographs of the USAAC aircraft, taken in the mid-30s, gave way to some doubts about the colours they were painted in, but the explanation lies in the two kinds of photographic films used by then: while the orthochromatic made the blue tones look like lighter, the panchromatic made them look like darker, often making it difficult to tell the difference between blue and olive green – even when there were no evidence that the latter was still being used -.

Even when the surviving Martin, at the time of its installation in Wright-Patterson, was painted in the blue-yellow scheme with the Alaskan expedition badge, at some point in the 80s or 90s it lost the latter because the Museum´s researchers concluded that the 33-146 was painted in a Green-yellow scheme when the 1834 flight was carried out…And they concluded it was easier to rub out the badge than repainting the aircraft completely!

But there are no doubts the colours it shows today were the ones it was painted with in 1934: as Jeffery S. Underwood expressed in his book The Wings of Democracy – The influence of Air Power on the Roosevelt Administration- 1933-1941:

“Arnold´s bombers put on a colorful show for the residents of Washington, D.C. Instead of the olive drab fuselage and yellow wings of the Air Corps´s tactical aircraft, his planes sported light blue fuselages with yellow wings. Suitably impressed, the New York Times reported that that the planes arrived in Washington with “their bodies and wings glistening in the sunshine…exactly on Schedule. The flight had been made with the precision of a railroad train”.

The Flight had a badge consisting of a totem placed over a map of Alaska, decorating the aircraft noses, that can be seen in several photos (at some point the Museum´s Martin had it too but, judging from the Museum´s official photos, it has been removed) and it was also worn in the crew´s flying jackets.

Epilog for nostalgic Argentinians

 Around 2001 we made a virtual visit to the, by then, known as the USAF Museum, and its website where we found the fact sheet of the Martin B-10.

There we found a very well kept aircraft, but painted in the Army Air Corps´s blue and yellow color scheme of the mid-30s while the fact sheet explained those colours had been worn by the already seen legendary Washington-Fairbanks flight.

Having confirmed that what had been established in the 2nd article of the donation law had not been  fulfilled (the aircraft painted in Argentine colours) we wrote a letter to the USAF Museum director to point him out that breach of the law and asked him to study the possibility of reverting that situation… We had no answer.

However, a few months later we visited the Museum website again, noting that the Martin fact sheet had been updated with aditional information explaining how the plane had been adquired: it was pointed out that the Museum had been looking for a surviving Martin for years until it found an example in Argentina, as a training element at the Jorge Newberry (sic) Industrial School, starting the negotiation process to obtain it.

It ended explaining that, as a magnificent gesture of friendship between Argentina and the United States, and in recognition of its tremendous historical value that the B-10 represented for the United States Air Force, the Argentine Navy had presented the Martin as a gift on August 21st, 1970,  the donation being accepted by the U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, John David Lodge.

Unfortunately, something has no solution: To see the last (Argentine) surviving Martin… One has to go to Ohio!

We hope this may serve us to develop a concience of preserving our historical heritage, above all when it´s referred to unique pieces that are a part of the history of our Aviation.

Bibliography: Arguindeguy, Pablo E: “Historia de la Aviación Naval Argentina” Tomos I y II (Argentina, 1981), Keisel, Kenneth M: “Images of Aviation – Wright Field (Arcadia Publishing, EE.UU., 2016), Maurer, Maurer: “Aviation in the US Army 1919-1939 (EE.UU., 1987), Núñez Padín, Jorge F.: “Martin 139WAN (Serie Aeronaval Nº 8)” (Argentina, 1994) y Underwood, Jeffrey S.: “The Wings of Democracy: The influence of Air Power on the Roosevelt Administration, 1933-1941 (EE.UU., 1991). Magazines: Airman (EE.UU., 1977), The Air Reservist (EE.UU., 1977) y Mach 1 (Argentina, 2001). Internet sources: Air Force Magazine, AvStop.com, Blog Aeronaves Preservadas de la Aviación Naval Argentina, Blog “El MUAN”, Histarmar, Joe Baugher, National Museum of the Air Force, Port San Antonio, The National Interest, TVD.im, USAF, USAF Civil Engineering Center y Weapons and Warfare. Acknowledgments: To Carlos Ay who colaborated with documentation and photographs from his personal files.