One of the shortest-lived—and least-known—Navy attack aircraft was the AM-1 Mauler, produced by the Glenn L. Martin Company. The AM was developed as a competitor to the highly successful Douglas AD Skyraider; it was heavier—20,000 pounds versus 15,600 pounds design weight for the XBT2D-1, the Skyraider prototype—and proved inferior in performance.
Like the Skyraider, the Mauler was ordered in early 1944 as the Navy sponsored the development of several prototypes of advanced attack aircraft to replace the TBM Avenger and SB2C Helldiver aboard carriers. The Navy wanted a single aircraft for the scouting, dive bombing, and torpedo missions.
The first of two Mauler prototypes flew on 26 August 1944 as the XBTM-1, and the Navy placed a production order in early 1945 for 750 aircraft. The following year the aircraft’s designation was changed to AM-1 when the aircraft symbols B for Bomber, T for Torpedo, and S for Scouting were dropped by the Navy in favor of the all-inclusive A for Attack; hence the AM designation for the first attack aircraft produced by Martin.
Maulers began joining the fleet in March 1948 with Attack Squadron (VA)-17A, based at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island. (VA-17A was redesignated VA-174 a few months later.) Only four additional first-line squadrons were equipped with Maulers: VA-44, VA-45, VA-84, and VA-85.
AM-1 production ended with the 144th aircraft, completed in October 1949. (Sources vary as to the exact number of Maulers produced; this number is based on Bureau of Aeronautics serial numbers.) The cutback came as the Navy instead opted to produce the Skyraider, which had better performance. Also, the Mauler was plagued with material problems, deriving mainly from the Martin Company’s inexperience with carrier-based aircraft. (Martin’s previous experience with carrier-based aircraft was the BM-series bombing aircraft, which were produced in the early 1930s.)
The Mauler was a bulky-looking, single-seat, single-engine aircraft with weapons carried on 15 wing and fuselage attachment points. Its Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engine produced an impressive 3,000 horsepower, more than any other U.S. piston-engine attack or fighter aircraft. Although designed to lift up to 6,000 pounds of weapons, on one occasion a Mauler took off with a 14,179-pound payload, including 3 torpedoes and 12 250- pound bombs. (The record takeoff payload for the Skyraider was 11,944 pounds, including three 2,000-pound bombs, six 500- pounders, and six 250- pounders.) There were no provisions for the Mauler to carry nuclear weapons.
An AN/APS-4 search radar pod could be fitted on the starboard wing. The Mauler had four 20-mm cannon with a total of 800 rounds.
The only variant of the AM-1 design was a radar countermeasures aircraft; six Maulers were produced in that configuration. This slightly heavier AM-1Q had a radar countermeasures compartment aft of the cockpit with a second crewman. The plane carried an AN/APR-1 search receiver and AN/APA-11 pulse analyzer, and had provisions for the AN/APS-4 radar. Significantly, the AM-1Q variant could still carry bombs and retained the four 20-mm cannon.
The Mauler’s career in the fleet was brief, and by 1950 all AM-1 aircraft had been transferred to reserve units. Indeed, VA-174 flew the Mauler for only 13 months before it was replaced by the AD-3 variant of the Skyraider. This shift of aircraft in attack squadrons was done largely to equip all active attack squadrons with AD Skyraiders.
The last Mauler in Navy service was an AM-1Q with Composite Squadron (VC)-4; the last aircraft was discarded in October 1950. The Navy’s carrier- based attack squadrons fought the Korean War with AD Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs—but no Maulers.
Thus, the Mauler’s career was brief and uneventful. The aircraft that replaced it in the fleet—the AD Skyraider—was undoubtedly the best piston-engine attack aircraft ever produced.
