Good old days: Founder of airplane company part of history

Almost 100 years ago, long before he founded the airplane manufacturing company that eventually merged to form Lockheed Martin, pioneer aviator Glenn Martin was learning to fly above the Newport Bay and the Irvine family’s bean fields.

In 1909, Martin began building the first airplane in Orange County in a church space at the corner of Second and Main streets in Santa Ana.

The night air resounded with hammering and sputtering as the 20-something labored away at his hydroplane, dubbed by some a “flying bird cage.”

On May 10, 1912, his dream manifested as he soared the 34 miles from the Pacific Ocean at Balboa to Catalina Island in just 37 minutes.

“That was a major accomplishment at the time,” said George Grupe, a local historian who has lived in the area since 1923.

“He broke the long distance record for over water flight up to that time. The longest before that was the flight across the English Channel.”

The event brought a horde of reporters to the area and sparked interest in the motion picture industry.

Soon after, Martin went up with cameraman Floyd Humphries, who captured 17 minutes of film while flying more than a mile a minute from as high as 400 feet.

The aviator had many other flight companions, including his ever supportive mother, actress Valeska Suratt, known as the “Vampire Woman” of the silent screen, and James Irvine.

“He took James Irvine up so he could see what his ranch looked like,” Grupe said.

“He used to drop flowers on the Irvine ranch to try to attract the attention of Kathryn Irvine. She thought he was kind of nuts, but he’d go up there and buzz his little airplane engine and drop flowers.”

Martin, who was not related to Eddie Martin of Orange County’s former Eddie Martin Airport, later moved to Los Angeles and then to the East Coast to fill orders for the U.S. Armed Forces.

The first order his manufacturing company received came from the War Department in 1913.

“He built some great WWII flying boats and bombers,” Grupe said.

One of Martin’s bombers appeared in the 1927 film “Wings,” which starred Clara Bow and Gary Cooper, and Martin acted as a pilot alongside silver screen sweetheart Mary Pickford in “A Girl of Yesterday.”

Martin remained in control of the Glenn L. Martin Company for 40 years, enlisting the likes of Donald Douglas and William Boeing to work with his skilled team of engineers.

Though Martin passed away Dec. 5, 1955, locals can revisit his famous flight at the base of the Balboa Pier, where a historic marker depicts the event.