Aviation buffs in San Francisco and San Diego will get to see the rarest of the rare possibly next week as the last flying example of the world's largest flying boat makes its last flight. The Philippine Mars, a Martin JRM Mars is currently undergoing taxi tests in Port Alberni, British Columbia in preparation for a flight to Lake Roosevelt in Arizona. From there, it will be partially dismantled to be trucked to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson.
I’d love a bit more detail on this. Are they stopping in the San Francisco and San Diego areas for any length of time? Is it just a fuel stop on the way? Or just a flyby, like with the Space Shuttle Endeavour, or…?
San Francisco was a Mars base, San Diego is a major USN base, so stops at both would be good history and PR for Coulson.
Need to use a harbour as Mars does not handle ocean swells well, I believe from watching it try closer to mouth of Strait of Juan de Fuca when picking up in the Strait to dump on fire in the rugged canyon of the Sooke Potholes park. Boating jurks flocking back to Victoria were getting in its way. Yes, the Mars was built to operate on the ocean.
Russ, the article says that the BC lumber consortium bought four or the Mars craft. You mention the Hawaii and Philippine planes. What happened to the other two aircraft?
Both the Martin Mars that Coulson purchased and used were planes my grandfather flew on in the 40s. Something he was immensely proud of and I’ve wanted to see since I was a little kid. @rniles I’d love to shoot some unique footage while it’s in San Diego. So if you hear of any details please feel free to reach out and I’ll make the drive down.
Hope I don’t miss it!