Martin Torque

Prof. Martin Torque was an extremely stuffy doberman inventor always seen wearing a white suit and fedora. Torque considered flesh-and-blood airplane pilots a thing of the past: decaying, defective, and defunct, "like the dinosaurs." He invented the Auto-Aviator - a pilot that never eats, never sleeps, and never deviates - and tested its skills by paying Rebecca Cunningham to let him use the Sea Duck, much to Baloo's consternation.

After being punched in the face by a short-tempered Baloo for insulting his skills as a pilot, Torque went and tried to sell his Auto-Aviator design to Khan Industries. However, Shere Khan refused to buy until he'd seen how the robot performed against a real pilot like Baloo. Needless to say, Torque's Auto-Aviator outperformed the fallible Baloo, and Torque became business partners with Shere Khan, as Khan Industries mass-produced the Auto-Aviator.

Unfortunately, Torque never considered that his invention would have to deal with Air Pirates. When Don Karnage and his men attacked Shere Khan's private plane carrying him and Torque, Torque was unable to persuade the Auto-Aviator to change course to evade the pirates. Luckily, Baloo (who had heard the distress call) came to their rescue, deactivating the robot and flying Khan's plane to safety.

As for Torque, Khan threatened to drop him out of the plane for almost getting them killed thanks to his gross oversight unless he gave him back his money. Torque complied and, after getting back all his "mechanical miscreants," reprogrammed them to be Mechano-Maids and moved to Thembria.