Today, the Hawaii Mars, one of the two remaining Martin Mars flying boats, made its final flight to an air museum at the Victoria, BC airport.
I was fortunate to see this airplane fly at Abottsford when i was doing air shows there. Absolutely awesome.
A friends father was a Navy aviation mechanic and trained on them. He remembered the fire that destroyed one vividly. Down to 2 I guess so I am happy they'll be preserved. Too many important aircraft we have no examples of.
My father flew these planes. I have his flight logs and a large framable picture of the Martin Mars that I am trying to decide where to donate it. The Naval Museum in Pensacola, FL or the museum in Middle River, MD where the Mars was made are a couple choices. Anybody have other suggestions?
Of course the problem is that it is a flying boat and not an amphibian so it can only land on water. Both Pensacola and Middle River are fairly near water but I wonder if the cost of getting the plane from the water to either museum might by prohibitive.
Spruce Goose is on dry land. I hate to think of them spending their museum days in the water. That wont end well. The ramps they used for the ampibs are still there in Alameda. Wonder if that exists at either location. Probably a huge job to pull wings.
MY EARLY DAYS WERE SPENT busting my gut on the early 707 series of transports and those that followed. It galls me to see the destruction or deterioration of the product of so many hours of work and talent go to waste. As I age now I realize the value of the gifted people that brought so much into our national excellence and the lead in the world. I fear for my country now.
I wouldn't look at it that way. Each successive model was a stepping stone to the next. We wouldnt have 777s if we didn't first have a Wright Flyer. You guys made huge strides in aviation and flying around the world to get somewhere for fun or business would not be an ordinary part of our life if it had not been for you guys. You made more advances in less time than happened before or since. Your generation got us past the speed of sound and to the moon. Not a bad legacy. I still remember when Neil and Buzz landed up there. I call it the day science fiction came true. And I'm still pretty damn proud the American flag is the only one there. We do need to keep examples so we remember where we came from and what people like you achieved.
The Hawaii Mars Water Bomber Finally Arrives At Its Forever Home, The British Columbia Aviation Museum (msn.com)
Well Jim, the second one (= "Philippine Mars") is going to the Pima Air and Space musuem in...Tucson, Arizona. She should be there before the end of this year. She won't fly there ; she hasn't flown since 2006. Rgds
I thought that one of them was intended for the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, and that aircraft that been repainted in its U.S. Navy colors. Is that the Philippine Mars?
That was her original "retirement package" as anounced in 2012; but the plan was "put on hold" in 2016, and in April of this year the Pima Air and Space Museum anounced that it has acquired "Philippine Mars", which is scheduled to be there at the end of this year. https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/pima-air-and-space-museum-acquires-iconic-philippine-mars.html Rgds
Just to update the thread... "Philippine Mars" was brought back to flying condition (her last flight was in 2007) and left Sproat Lake in Canada for the US indeed, on December 15th, but didn't go very far: she is stranded for now in Patricia Bay with a blown cylinder on one of her R-3350 engines... https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/philippine-mars-staying-at-patricia-bay-for-christmas-9990210 Rgds
Thanks for the update. Same happened to a B29 that sat at Oakland for years. Sold to east coast and on ferry flight lost an engine not far out of Oakland. Sat for some time more as result.
Number four was smoking pretty heavily on takeoff. Makes you understand how important it was to take Iwo Jima so busted engine B-29s had someplace to land.
Very tough service life in both cases. Recips run that hard all the time like on a water bomber or what the B29s going to Japan went through are just not going to have long lives. Said it before. If not for turbines air travel could not possibly be what it is today. And combat aircraft? What is the comparable in service rate or man hours to flight time between the end of recips to jets say in the 80s or later. Do you know Terry? According to the stories the cliffs at the end of the runways at Tinian were a burned out grave yard of men and aircraft that lost a motor on take off. Happened so regularly its the reason given for not arming the atomic bomb until mid flight.
Brian- I do know the accident rate went way down when turbojets were introduced widely in the 50s and 60s. Simpler for the pilot and the early ones were tough as nails, even if they did not produce much thrust. Not sure what the maintenance man-hours per flight hour comparison was, but it had to go way down with turbines. No spark plugs, no valves, no separate super- or turbo-charger, and no timing to set. Electric or hydraulic propellers were also high maintenance items. Some early turbojets were cleaned by throwing walnut shells down the intake. Not possible now, but.....
Will never forget watching Hawaii Mars do a couple of go-arounds in Vancouver Harbor……the aircraft flew away from my vantage point for 4 minutes; I could still see it clearly….. standing on the float next to it I was feeling dwarfed by the size…..then I got an invite to board…..eerie how big inside! Kudos to your father @JSwan724
I have a book called "Airline Crashes" that has simple listings for over 10,000 incidents. If you scroll down, it's appalling how many accidents in the prop era were due to engines and/or propellers, peaking in the 1950s with the larger percentage of airliners with big engines like R-3350s or R-4360s. As soon as you get to the '60s you realize just how more reliable the jet engines were, even the earliest ones. I think those big props were pushing the limits of technology. The R-3350s seem to be the worst, even after the early fire problems of the B-29 were eliminated. The R-2800s were rather better, which is why the DC-6 outlived the DC-7 in service.
I talked to a P2V Neptune mechanic once while they were operating the slurry bombers out of Albuquerque, circa 2016 I think. I remember him joking that the PRT - "Power Recovery Turbine" was more accurately known as the "Parts Recovery Turbine" due to the high failure rate. I do love the old technology and I find the R-3350 Turbo Compound engine to be an amazing example of the state-of-the-art at that particular time. That and the R-4360. The engineering is/was really impressive.
Well on recips I don't think a great deal of the engine work was done at your level. I think mostly they just uncrated a new or rebuilt unit. Engines were a depot level thing and real life of the recips in combat was low.
I agree and they were but when I am in an airliner I am really happy any pistons we might have along are in the cargo hold. By the time they went past 18 cylinders the recips were way past their use by date. And in some cases even the 18s were just pushing it too far.
I remember a friends dad was a pilot flying the military version of the DC6 and he said on transpac flights it was very common to arrive with one feathered.
