Martin Middle River Plant Site, Maryland

An airfield north of Baltimore, at Middle River, became a major aircraft production site when the Martin Company sold its Cleveland plant, and built one here in 1930. In the 1930s it built flying boats, for the US Navy, launching them off a ramp that remains at the southern end of the airfield, and China Clippers flying boats used by Pan American’s Pacific Ocean route, flying from San Francisco to the Philippines, stopping in at remote Pacific atolls to refuel, and eventually on to China. The plant produced B-26 and other bombers in World War II, employing nearly 50,000 people here, and continued to produce military aircraft and missiles after the war, out of several large buildings. It was one of a few aircraft plants operated by the company, which included the B-29 plant at Offutt Air Force Base in Missouri (where the atomic bomb-capable Enola Gay and Bockscar were among the 531 B-29s made there). Martin joined the Marietta Corporation in 1961, becoming Martin Marietta, and became the third largest defense contractor in the nation, until it merged with the second largest, Lockheed, in 1995, to become Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest defense contractor. Lockheed still uses some facilities at the airfield, now called Martin State Airport, though the largest structure is now owned by Middle River Aircraft Systems, making parts for military and civilian airplanes, and another large plant structure, said to contain 1.9 million square feet, is underutilized, and may be redeveloped.