Philippine Mars, Final Navy Flying Boat, Takes Ultimate Flight; See Images

Discovering a closing resting place

The Marianas Mars crashed in 1961 throughout firefighting operations in Vancouver Island, and the Caroline Mars was broken past restore by a hurricane the next yr.

The final surviving Mars flying boats — the Philippine Mars and the Hawaii Mars — had been later acquired by Coulson Aviation in 2007 to “develop its firefighting capabilities,” in accordance with the corporate.

The Coulson Group stated the plane underwent a number of upgrades and renovations to make it a safer and extra dependable aerial firefighter, however officers in British Columbia changed it with newer plane, just like the firefighting variants of the Lockheed C-130.

However after sitting in storage for half a decade, the Coulson Group determined to retire the Philippine Mars in 2012, donating it to the Nationwide Naval Aviation Museum in Florida as a everlasting exhibit. Its red-and-white paint scheme from its time as a water bomber was changed with its authentic darkish blue Navy colours, however the commerce cope with the Navy was placed on indefinite maintain amid the 2016 presidential election.

Final April, Coulson Aviation introduced that the Philippine Mars would as an alternative discover its closing touchdown on the Pima Air and House Museum.

Because the plane’s retirement approached, the Coulson Group supplied experiences for aviation lovers to get “up shut and private with their Martin Mars water bombers.”

This system, which had packages starting from $1,000 to $15,000, featured excursions of the planes and the chance to look at maintainers engaged on them. The highest-tier expertise, which included a possibility to taxi the airplane on the water, offered out in three days.