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The Chevrolet brothers began producing an efficient aircraft engine called the Chevrolair 333. Bad management ended that business and caused a rift between the brothers. Chevrolet then joined Baltimore Ford dealer, Glenn L. Martin, in new aircraft company, but lost out to Martin in the stock market crash of 1929. Martin later built a successful company around this engine, which he called the Martin 4-333 or the Martin bomber.

In 1937, the Glenn L. Martin Company designed a new twin engined flying boat to succeed its earlier Martin P3M and supplement the Consolidated PBY, the Model 162. It received an order for a single prototype XPBM-1 on 30 June 1937. This was followed by an initial production order for 21 PBM-1 aircraft on 28 December 1937.

To test the PBM's layout, Martin built a three-eighth scale flying model, the Martin 162A Tadpole Clipper with a crew of one and powered by a single 120 hp (90 kW) Chevrolet engine, this flying in December 1937. The first genuine PBM, the XPBM-1, flew on 18 February 1939.