Getting the massive firefighting aircraft from Sproat Lake to the airport in North Saanich presents a number of hurdles.
The famed Martin Mars bomber, an enormous water tanker plane used for combating fires for greater than a half-century in British Columbia, is predicted to make its final flight this fall when it is going to be flown to North Saanich for a everlasting show within the B.C. Aviation Museum.
The province will announce particulars of the plan at midday right now to fly the bomber from its base on the shores of Sproat Lake in Port Alberni.
Richard Mosdell, the aviation museum’s undertaking lead on procuring the Hawaii Mars — the final plane of its sort, confirmed a deal has been struck with the aircraft’s house owners, the Coulson Group of Firms, the province and the aviation museum to convey the bomber south.
However particular particulars shall be made by the province, he stated.
The Hawaii Mars has not flown any firefighting missions since 2015 and has been sitting idle at Coulson’s Sproat Lake Air base since its retirement.
Lana Popham, minister of tourism, and Josie Osborne, MLA for Mid Island-Pacific Rim, will collect with representatives from the B.C. Aviation Museum and Coulson Aviation to make the announcement and tour the Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber.
The announcement can be anticipated to incorporate preparations to get the large aircraft airworthy and different logistics for the transfer, together with assembling the required pilots, engineers and different specialised crew.
Mosdell stated Wednesday that tentative plans will see the Hawaii Mars make its final flight within the fall from Sproat Lake down the east coast of the Island. A flight plan could be issued prematurely so hundreds of people that have come to know the aircraft can witness the flight alongside the route and its touchdown on the waters of Patricia Bay on the Saanich Peninsula.
The aviation museum and Coulson CEO Wayne Coulson have been in talks in regards to the Hawaii Mars for greater than two years.
The discussions have been initiated by Mosdell, a Port Alberni native who grew up across the aircraft and now owns a martial arts studio in Royal Oak. He stated he contacted Coulson after the bomber was put up on the market in aviation marketplaces at $5 million, although no presents emerged.
Mosdell linked the museum and Coulsen with the concept of preserving the aircraft. Mosdell was added to the museum’s board and given the result in proceed negotiations and hyperlink up the province about the way it might assist in the acquisition, and draw up a plan to convey it to the museum on the lands of the Victoria Worldwide Airport.
“Folks simply love this aircraft they usually’ve come from all around the world simply to see it,” stated Mosdell, noting that when he labored in forestry, lumber clients from Japan particularly needed to see the Hawaii Mars bomber. Extra not too long ago, German vacationers had their faces pressed in opposition to the fence on the Coulson yard craning for a better look, he stated.
Final July, B.C. Aviation Museum president Steve Nichol advised the Occasions Colonist the museum deliberate to make the Martin Mars a centrepiece of its assortment of B.C. wildfire plane, which already consists of an A26 Douglas Invader and Convair 580. The Mars could be the primary firefighting water “scooper” for the museum.
The museum stated there are future plans to construct a brand new hangar for all three.
Nichol stated the Hawaii Mars bomber “could be one huge jewel — make {that a} boulder — in our crown on the B.C. Aviation museum.”
However getting the Hawaii Mars to the airport presents a number of hurdles.
It’s the most important fixed-wing water bomber on the planet, with a wing span of 200 toes and a physique 120 toes lengthy, so trucking it isn’t an choice contemplating the aircraft’s sheer measurement. Even when the wings have been taken off, it’s an extended and tough route with bridges and energy traces, and the prices to move and reassemble could be prohibitive.
A short lived flying certificates must be authorized by Transport Canada and the plane would require a number of checks to be ready to fly once more. It will then must be flown to Patricia Bay and hoisted onto a barge.
Nichol stated adjustments could must be made to a number of the docks and infrastructure on the coast guard base at Patricia Bay to barge the large aircraft to land, the place it must be fitted with wheeled dollies to be rolled out of the ocean, put right into a cradle and trucked throughout West Saanich Street and Victoria Worldwide Airport property to the museum.
Climate would play a job in each the flight and softness of the soil over airport lands.
The Martin Mars bombers are water planes and don’t have any touchdown gear.
Mosdell stated Wednesday the plan stays primarily the identical.
Solely seven Martin Mars have been made by California-based Glenn L. Martin Firm, all for the U.S. Navy as ocean patrol and long-range transports through the Second World Conflict. Most have been used for naval cargo on the San Francisco-Honolulu route till 1956.
The final 4, offered as scrap, have been purchased by a B.C. forestry consortium and later transformed to water bombers. One Mars crashed whereas firefighting close to Nanoose Bay in 1961 with the lack of 4 crew. One other was critically broken in a storm.
The remaining two Martin Mars bombers have been acquired by the Coulson Group in 2007 from Timberwest and its subsidiary, Forest Industrial Flying Tankers. The Philippine Mars, painted blue and white, was retired in 2012 and isn’t thought of airworthy. The crimson and white Hawaii Mars had its final fireplace season in B.C. in 2015, when it secured a 30-day contract with the province.
The huge water tankers fought fires in British Columbia and different provinces for greater than half a century. They have been the most important fixed-wing water bombers on the planet.
Coulson, which fights fires in a number of nations all over the world, has used the Martin Mars bombers as templates for firefighting tanking programs on newer plane, together with CH-47 Chinook helicopters and C-130 Hercules and Boeing 737 planes.
The Coulson fleet consists of the most important quantity of huge air tankers worldwide and the crews now work within the U.S., Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Korea.
dkloster@timescolonist.com
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