{"id":355406,"date":"2024-04-04T09:41:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T13:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/?post_type=news&p=355406"},"modified":"2024-04-04T09:41:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T13:41:15","slug":"iconic-hawaii-mars-waterbomber-will-retire-to-bc-aviation-museum","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/news\/iconic-hawaii-mars-waterbomber-will-retire-to-bc-aviation-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Hawaii Mars waterbomber will retire to BC Aviation Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Hawaii Mars requires water to take off and land, so it will settle at Saanich Inlet, near the Victoria airport, and then to Canadian Coast Guard Base Patricia Bay, a former seaplane port. Heath Moffatt Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coulson Aviation has found a final resting place for its 1945 Martin Mars waterbomber, known as the Hawaii Mars, a key part of British Columbia history and one of only two aircraft of the type known to have survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iconic Hawaii Mars will be donated to the British Columbia Aviation Museum, where it will form the centrepiece of a wildfire aviation exhibit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have let go of the disappointment of having to retire the world’s greatest waterbomber, and now focus on its amazing aviation history, which dates back to 1945 when it was delivered to the U.S. Navy,\u201d said Coulson Aviation in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Martin Mars is among the largest aircraft ever built, a giant \u201cflying boat\u201d that served for several decades in B.C. firefighting missions after being retired from military service in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over a span of 55 years, two Mars aircraft \u2014 both acquired by Coulson in 2007 and known as the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars \u2014 dropped over 50 million gallons (roughly 189 million litres) of water on wildfires, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese airplanes are the undisputed world champions in aerial firefighting water delivery and have undoubtedly proven the concept of an initial attack at the start of a wildfire,\u201d said Coulson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been an honour for our family to be entrusted with these aircraft and the hope they represent for the public in time of need as we have all been negatively impacted in some way by the devastation of wildfire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preparations to retire the Hawaii Mars are set to begin immediately, with its final flight from the Coulson Aviation Tanker Base in Port Alberni, B.C., to Victoria International Airport expected in late summer or early fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Over a span of 55 years, two Mars aircraft \u2014 both acquired by Coulson in 2007 and known as the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars \u2014 dropped over 189 million litres of water on wildfires. Heath Moffatt Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coulson will enlist a team of five former certified maintenance engineers and four flight crew to complete about 10,000 hours of aircraft maintenance and \u201cflight retraining\u201d over the next six months, according to the B.C. government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The province is providing $250,000 in one-time funding for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Hawaii Martin Mars waterbomber is a proud symbol of B.C.\u2019s ingenuity and innovation, representing cutting-edge technology in aviation firefighting of its time,\u201d said Lana Popham, the province\u2019s minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recognize the value the Hawaii Martin Mars waterbomber holds for many people and have heard their desire to have it housed in the British Columbia Aviation Museum, where it can be displayed and protected as an important piece of our province\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hawaii Mars requires water to take off and land, so it will settle at Saanich Inlet, near the Victoria airport, and then to Canadian Coast Guard Base Patricia Bay, a former seaplane port. At Patricia Bay, the aircraft will be brought up on a ramp, mounted on a trailer, and hauled across runways at the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During its military service with the U.S. Navy, the Hawaii Mars was a transport carrier and served as an air ambulance during the Korean War. It was last deployed in the summer of 2015 to extinguish wildfires in B.C., California, Mexico, and Alberta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only six Martin Mars aircraft were initially manufactured for the Navy, and two were lost during military operations. The remaining four aircraft, along with several spare parts, were sold to Forest Industries Flying Tankers (FIFT), a consortium of B.C. forestry companies, in the late 1950s, according to B.C. Aviation Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Martin Mars is among the largest aircraft ever built, a giant \u201cflying boat\u201d that served for several decades in B.C. firefighting missions after being retired from military service in the late 1950s. Heath Moffatt Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fairey Aviation of Canada converted the aircraft into waterbombers at Victoria International Airport, and the first entered wildfire service in 1960. An aborted drop resulted in a crash that claimed the lives of four crew and destroyed the Marianas Mars aircraft in 1961, per the museum. A little more than a year later, Typhoon Freda destroyed the Caroline Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This left only the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars, which went on to fight over 4,000 forest fires using their massive 27,000-litre load capacity. Vancouver Islanders frequently gathered to watch these aircraft as they soared in action during wildfire season, with their 2,500-horsepower Wright R3350-24WA engines turning 16-foot propellers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it will be a monumental project just to get it here, it will be one big jewel in our<\/p>\n\n\n\n

crown,\u201d said Steve Nichol, president of the B.C. Aviation Museum. \u201cThe Hawaii Mars has real historical and cultural value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The museum\u2019s wildfire exhibit already displays several aircraft, and there are plans to build a third interactive hangar to house the Mars and other planes, along with flight simulators that will allow guests to virtually fly the Mars on waterbombing runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was lucky to witness many demonstration practice drops when I swam at the lake often as a kid, and then later I knew of its extensive use when I was in forest firefighting,\u201d said Richard Mosdell, project lead for the Save the Mars Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow after these past two years of discussions \u2026 this huge rescue puzzle is finally being solved so that everyone can hear these same stories and even sit way up in the cockpit of this iconic aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The gigantic firefighting aircraft will become the centrepiece of a wildfire aviation exhibit at the museum in North Saanich, B.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":355410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[99054,99319],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355406","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial","category-firefighting","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/355406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skiesmag.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}