__NOTOC__ The Martin T or TT was a training biplane produced in the United States in 1913 for military use. It was a conventional, three-bay biplane with unstaggered wings of equal span. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem, open cockpits with dual controls. Fixed, taildragger undercarriage was fitted, which could be exchanged for a single pontoon under the fuselage and wingtip floats.''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft'', 2432 Early examples were delivered to the Army without engines, so the Army could power them with engines salvaged from other aircraft, but later TTs came equipped with Curtiss, Hall-Scott, or Sturtevant engines. In 1915, a Model TT was piloted by Oscar Brindley to win the Curtiss Marine Trophy for the longest flight within 10 consecutive hours in one day, covering 444 mi (710 km). The Model T was the basis for the Martin S Hydro seaplane, with a lengthened fuselage, a greater span, and upper wing

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

s. The first Martin T acquired, Signal Corps Number 31, was deployed to Texas in April 1915 as the Army massed around Brownsville in response to civil war in Mexico involving forces under

Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa ( , , ; born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula; 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) was a Mexican revolutionary and prominent figure in the Mexican Revolution. He was a key figure in the revolutionary movement that forced ...

. On April 20, S.C. 31 became the first American military aircraft to be fired on by a hostile force. Although not hit by a machine gun firing at it from the Mexican side of the border, the returning pilot taxied it into a ditch and damaged it beyond repair.

Variants

;Martin T :Two-seat training biplane for the US Army, three built (S.C. 31-33) ;Martin TT :Variant with Curtiss, Hall-Scott, or Sturtevant piston engines, 14 built (S.C. 37-38, 50-51, 54-55, 96-101, 330-331)

Operators

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

** Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps **

Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the aerial warfare service of the United States from 1914 to 1918, and a direct statutory ancestor of the United States Air Force. It absorbed and replaced the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps, Aer ...

Variants

Operators

Specifications (TT)

References

Further reading