eBay: Martin PBM Mariner

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I have been reading about WWII since I was a 9 year old kid, starting about 1970. I can't remember ever seeing a picture of a PBM with a radome until I was an adult. Of the pictures in this thread, the majority of them are planes without a radome. Of the older pictures of planes wiht a radome - the angle is shot so the radome either is not showing or is not clearly visible. I still have a hunch that there was a restriction on pictures showing the radome for at least part of the war even if the device was not strictly classified.
 
A question for those who can remember their aerodynamic sources. The PBM, third pic down nose, shows engine cowling with eye lid. I first read of this mod years ago reading DC-3 histories as a cure for elevator turbulence when landing (nose high) with Wright Cyclones engines due to their larger diameter. It seems in a nose up, slow speed attitude hot air spilled out over the top of the cowling. I had not seen this eye lid on other types, not DC-3 aircraft, until on this forum, there was another aircraft (can't remember which or where) and now this PBM. Did this hot air turbulence occur with other aircraft types?
 

From all PBM-models only the PBM-1 (see above) had this "eye lid" installed. 20 PBM-1 have been manufactured and all received the Wright Cyclone R-2600-6 engines. The next models PBM-3, 3C, 3R, 3S had R-2600-12 engines and PBM-3D had R 2600-22 engines. Compare PBM-1 engine with PBM-3 in the background:

The reason for those eye lids you describe is interesting, but probably it was not very effective . I personally have no idea.
Some of the later models used in the Pacific and in the Southern Atlantic received cooling fans on their engines:


Cheers!
 
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I believe the differences between the articles about PBM and PBY e.g. are based on the source of the article: IMHO those were copied from Internet (check the Sources) and do not contain the exact same type of information. This doesn't mean at all Mariners were not involved in U-boat sinkings. If you check the site thoroughly you'll find all of those listed.
From Uboat.net:
U-161 Sunk on 27 September 1943 in the South Atlantic east of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, in position 12.30S, 35.35W, by depth charges from a US Mariner aircraft (VP-74 USN/P-2). 53 dead (all hands lost).
Check here for some photos of the aircraft from another site (Uboatarchive.net)
U-513 Sunk on 19 July 1943 in the South Atlantic south-east of São Francisco do Sul, Brazil, in position 27.17S, 47.32W, by depth charges from a US Mariner aircraft (VP-74 USN/P-3). 46 dead and 7 survivors.
U-572 Sunk on 3 August 1943 in the North Atlantic north-east of Trinidad, in position 11.35N, 54.05W, by depth charges from a US Mariner aircraft (VP-205 USN/P-6). 47 dead (all hands lost).
And so on.
If you want to have all cases in one source I'll suggest "The fighting Flying Boat" by Richard A. Hoffman - an amazing book about an amazing plane.

Cheers!
 
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