The Heritage Fund grant program has provided vital funds for preservation projects across Maryland for decades. Now that the FY24 grant cycle is open, Preservation Maryland is again sharing the progress of a past Heritage Fund project: our spring 2022 recipient, the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum for the Martin 404 Airliner Restoration & Painting. The museum was awarded $5,000 for the restoration and painting of the Martin 404 Airliner, specifically the tail rudder and nose.
THE MUSEUM
The museum honors the legacy of Glenn L. Martin, considered by some to be the father of modern airplane manufacturing. He built and piloted his first plane in 1910 in California breaking an earlier record for overwater flight, flying a total of 68 miles. He continued to grow his company, at one point merging with the Wright Brothers’ company, and developed planes used in WWI. In 1929 he relocated his operations to Maryland building a new plant just north of Baltimore City in Middle River. The more than 1200-acre campus includes buildings designed by noted industrial architect Albert Kahn who also designed Henry Ford’s Highland Park which was the birthplace of the moving assembly line. This site is now known as the Martin State Airport. Glenn Martin retired from the company in 1952 and died three years later. The company merged with American-Marieta in 1961, and then consolidated and joined with Lockheed to become Lockheed-Martin in 1995. Lockheed-Martin continued to operate out of the Middle River site until 2021 when the began a two-year plan to close the facility.
THE 404
The Martin 404 Airline was the first post-World War II airline design to be produced by the company. The plane was an improvement of an earlier version, the Martin 202, which was stopped due to structural issues with the wing. A total of 103 were built starting in 1951 and were primarily flown by Eastern Air Lines and Trans World Airlines (aka TWA). The model on display at the museum was built in 1952 and sold to Eastern Air Lines where it ran the Boston to Florida route. In 2000 it was donated to the museum by a private owner. Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and the Doobie Brothers also used Martin 404 models as their touring aircrafts.
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A FREE GRANT INFORMATION SESSION FOR HERITAGE FUND FY24 WILL TAKE PLACE ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2023. TO REGISTER CLICK HERE. THIS SESSION WILL BE RECORDED AND MADE AVAILABLE ON THE FUNDING PAGE.
RELEVANT FY24 DOCUMENTS:
- FY24 HERITAGE FUND GUIDELINES
- FY24 HERITAGE FUND CRITERIA & SCORING RUBRIC
- FY24 HERITAGE FUND APPLICATION QUESTIONS
For further questions, contact Christiana Limniatis, Program & Outreach Manager at climniatis@PresMD.org or 410-685-2886 x. 302.