One of many final surviving examples of world’s largest flying boat shall be preserved at a Canadian aviation museum. The British Columbia Aviation Museum close to Victoria will take supply of the large Martin Mars after its ultimate flight from its present base in Port Alberni about 150 miles northwest. The ultimate flight is predicted to happen this coming fall and the aircraft would be the centerpiece of an aerial firefighting exhibit on the museum. The British Columbia authorities offered a grant of $250,000 to the museum.
A complete of six Mars had been constructed by Martin beginning in 1945 and so they had been initially supposed as troop transports. One crashed throughout testing and one other was destroyed by hearth however the remaining “Massive 4” had been used extensively to provide Hawaii and different Pacific Islands till 1956. They had been purchased as surplus from the U.S. Navy in 1959 by a consortium of B.C. forestry corporations and transformed to water bombers. One crashed and one other was wrecked in a storm however for nearly 40 years the remaining two, the Hawaii Mars, which is able to go to the museum, and Phillipine Mars had been used to quench wildfires from B.C. to California. The planes dropped 7,200 gallons of water and will reload by skimming on a lake in 22 seconds. They’re powered by 2,400 horsepower Wright R-3350-24WA Cyclone engines with 4-bladed propellers with a 16-foot diameter.
Hawaii Mars final flew in 2016 when it was a star attraction at AirVenture. The aircraft suffered a punctured hull when it hit the underside of Lake Winnebago and it needed to be stored afloat with pumps till it may very well be patched and flown to Vancouver Island. Coulson Flying Tankers, which purchased the Hawaii and Phillipine plane in 2007, had hoped to promote the Hawaii Mars at AirVenture nevertheless it has been on the lookout for a purchaser ever since. In the meantime, the Phillipine Mars has been beached for greater than 10 years pending a possible cope with the Nationwide Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
