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| Hawaii Mars |
Martin JRM Mars flying boats were developed during WW2 as cargo planes for the Navy. The JR in JRM is just a Navy code for Utility-Transport Aircraft, so JRM just means JR - Mars. Only seven were made. The six production aircraft were all named after Pacific Ocean island chains. The Navy retired them in 1956. Coulson still has two of them at their base on Vancouver Island, 80 miles due west of the city of Vancouver.
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| The Martin Mars air tankers make their home at Sproat Lake - Mike Youds |
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| The Martin Mars Hawaii drops its load of water - Coulson Company |
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| Coulson Mars FLying Boats at their base on Sproat Lake Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada - 2009 - John Allan |
The Martin Mars is a very large airplane. Just how big is it? Here's a comparison with a couple others from the same era:
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| Comparison of Martin Mars, Convair Peacemaker & Spruce Goose (that little triangle in the lower left corner is part of the Hindenburg) |
Apparently , the Navy found out that it's SeaBees were so efficient at creating and maintaining airfields , that there was no need for massive fleets of transport flying boats .
ReplyDeleteSort of what happened to the old PanAm flying boat Clippers .
Great looking paint job , though !
I came across a photo of a C-130 repurposed to be a Coulson water bomber, and started looking into the Coulson company and then found they had these. Flying boats are like mythological creatures, really cool but almost never seen in the wild.
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