Martin Mars til Pima Air and Space Museum ved Davis-Monthan AFB - AIN

 

WWII-vintage Martin Mars Flying Boat To Return to U.S.

The massive flying boat will become a display at Arizona's Pima Air and Space Museum

 

The Philippine Mars, one of five WWII-vintage four-engine flying boats built for the U.S. Navy's long-haul cargo transport needs, would go on to end its career as a fire bomber in Canada. The retired aircraft is expected to be flown to Arizona's Pima Air and Space Museum by the end of the year. © Coulson Aviation

 

By CURT EPSTEIN • Senior Editor

April 25, 2024

A Martin JRM Mars, the largest flying boat ever produced for the U.S. Navy, will be returning to the U.S. as a museum piece later this year. The massive, four-engine “Philippine Mars”—one of only five JRMs produced—was acquired from its operator Coulson Aviation and will go on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona, which is home to one of the world’s largest collections of historic aircraft.

The Mars entered service at the tail end of World War II and were used to ferry cargo to distant U.S. bases in the Pacific. During the Korean War, they served as medical transports, flying between Hawaii and California carrying dozens of wounded soldiers on each flight. One was lost in 1950 when an engine fire consumed the airplane near Hawaii after the crew successfully evacuated to life rafts.

Decommissioned in 1956, Philippine Mars and her three surviving sisters were to be sold for scrap, but in 1958 a consortium of Canadian timber companies purchased them and their spare parts inventory and converted them into fire bombers based in British Columbia. They were capable of dumping more than 7,000 gallons of water and fire retardant on a blaze at a time. Skimming the surface of the water, the Mars could refill its tanks with 30 tons of water in just 22 seconds through retractable scoops in the hull.

One of the “Big Four” crashed in 1961 during firefighting operations, while another was wrecked the following year by a Pacific typhoon that severely damaged its fuselage. In 2007, the remaining two were bought by Coulson Aviation, which operated them for years as contract fire bombers, but by the mid-2010s the cost of their operation and upkeep began to mount and the company withdrew them from service.

Last month, it was announced that Hawaii Mars would be donated to the British Columbia Aviation Museum in recognition of its decades of firefighting duty and fulfilling a clause in its 2007 purchase calling for it to remain in the province after its retirement.

“This has been an exciting month for both Martin Mars waterbombers,” said Coulson Group CEO Wayne Coulson. “As a fitting tribute to their years of service and years of hard work by many people in BC and the U.S., we are pleased to see both Mars aircraft landing to rest at world-class institutions in 2024.”