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Web Foot Bomber – Martin’s P6M: SeaMaster or Sea Monster?

Final configuration of the P6M series is shown in this dramatic view of Ship #9 shows its overall clean design and the enlarged nacelles of the P&W J-75-P-2 engines that gave the SeaMaster the potential to outfly contemporary USAF bombers. (Photo courtesy of Stan Piet)

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As the sun had touched the horizon, the four-man crew of the huge flying-boat started their four J-75 turbojets. Engines whining at idle, they cast off from the buoy and water-taxied out of the lagoon. Turning into the ocean breeze, the throttles were pushed forward into full afterburner and the 80-ton behemoth accelerated with a high, white rooster tail whipped up by the exhausts. The carefully shaped vee-hull rode higher and higher until the P6M...

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