The
Martin T3M was an
American torpedo bomber of the 1920s. A single-engined three-seat
biplane, it became a standard torpedo bomber of the
U.S. Navy, operating from both land bases and from
aircraft carriers from 1926 to 1932.Having built 75 examples of the
Martin SC, the production version of the Curtiss CS in 1925, the
Glenn L. Martin Company was able to offer an improved version when the U.S. Navy had a requirement for an improved torpedo-bomber/scout aircraft. This aircraft, which was designated the
T3M-1, first flew in July 1926.The T3M was a large single-engined
biplane capable of being fitted with either a conventional tailwheel
undercarriage or floats. The fuselage was constructed of welded steel tube in place of the
riveted steel frame of the CS/SC, with the
pilot and
bombardier seated side by side in the front cockpit situated forward of the wing, with the bombardier having a position under the nose for aiming the aircraft's bombs or torpedoes, while the gunner had a cockpit well aft of the wing, with a radiator slung under the top wing between the cockpits. Power was from a 575 hp (429 kW)
Wright T-3B
V-12 engine. 24 T3M-1s were built.As the T3M-1 was underpowered, a new version was produced with the much more powerful (770 hp/574 kW)
Packard 3A-2500 engine. This version, the
T3M-2 had revised wings with the upper and lower wings of equal span (while in the T3M-1 the lower wings were of greater span), and the radiator was replaced by two radiators on the fuselage side, allowing the crew to moved to three tandem individual cockpits. The U.S. Navy ordered 100 T3M-2s, one of which was re-engined with
Pratt & Whitney Hornet and the
Wright Cyclone radial engines as the
XT3M-3 and
XT3M-4 respectively. These aircraft formed the basis of the
Martin T4M that would replace the T3M in service with the U.S. Navy.