# P6M SEAMASTER AMPHIBIOUS STRATEGIC BOMBER FLIGHT TEST FOOTAGE REEL 2 82334

This silent footage dates to the time of the Martin P6M Seamaster flight test program, with the prototype YP6M featured. At the start of the film you will see this incredible amphibian in the air on a test flight. The aircraft is seen taxiing at :58 and then starting high speed taxi runs. At 5:00 , the Seamaster's retrieval dolly is seen being positioned. At 5:16 the cockpit area of the aircraft is seen indicating it is "Ship 9", but it is unclear what this means since only five aircraft were built. At 6:40 the aircraft is seen in position to be mated to the retrieval dolly. Some of the frogmen who perform this task are seen on the docks. At 12:00 , the aircraft is seen entering the water on the dolly. Additional taxi tests are then shown. The Martin P6M SeaMaster, built by the Glenn L. Martin Company, was a 1950s strategic bomber flying boat for the United States Navy that almost entered service; production aircraft were built and Navy crews were undergoing operational conversion, with a service entry about six months off, when the program was cancelled on 21 August 1959. Envisioned as a way to give the Navy a strategic nuclear force, the SeaMaster was eclipsed by the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile. Due to the political situation at the Pentagon, the Navy promoted the P6M primarily as a high speed minelayer. The first pre-production YP6M-1 was completed about a year later, with testing resuming in January 1958. Five more were built in 1958 when the Navy…

- Kind: Film
- Genres: Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/82334YP6MFootageR2MosVwr)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/82334YP6MFootageR2MosVwr?play=1)