Cool Retrotech
Posted by David Foster on November 2nd, 2009 (All posts by David Foster)
I was vaguely aware of the Martin Mars, a very large seaplane built in the 1940s for the U.S. Navy…but had no idea that any of these airplanes were still flying in commercial service.
Turns out that two of these planes–the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars–are in regular use as water bombers for forest-fire fighting. Tailspin Tom has a great set of photographs.
Via Neptunus Lex, who notes that the Mars is less a flying boat than a flying ship.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Even more impressive when you note that these planes were designed without the ubiquitous computer program aids available today. This was all done with slide rules and pencil on paper.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Nice to see these birds still working for a living, not just showing up at airshows.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Very impressive.
November 6th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
On that wiki page, you can see the Caroline Mars parked in the St. John’s River. Too cool.