The long journey for the last operational Martin Mars flying boat ended Sept. 25 with a low-key public debut at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson. The massive aircraft was towed on its beaching gear to the public viewing area of the sprawling museum Sept. 25 after a mammoth effort to preserve it for posterity.
The aircraft was one of four sold by the Navy to a forestry consortium in the 1950s where they were converted to water bombers. Two were lost (one in a storm, one in a crash) and the last two, the Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars, were bought by Coulson Air Tankers in 2007. Coulson operated them sporadically and Hawaii Mars last dropped water on a fire in 2014. Philippine Mars was in long-term storage. Coulson tried to sell them, even taking Hawaii Mars to AirVenture in 2016 to try to drum up a buyer. Coulson eventually donated Hawaii Mars to a museum in Victoria, B.C., and Philippine Mars to Pima. Hawaii Mars flew to Victoria in August of 2024 and Philippine Mars was pulled out of mothballs.
It took considerable effort to get Philippine Mars back in the air. Engine problems plagued flight testing so the engines were swapped for those in Hawaii Mars. After a couple of hiccups, Philippine Mars finally made it to Arizona in April. It was disassembled at a boat launch on Lake Pleasant and trucked to Tucson. The fuselage made it there in late May. Then it was put back together again and finally rolled out last week. The video below gives some idea of the scope of the operation.
They did a fantastic job of disassembly and assembly in a very short amount of time. PIMA Air & Space is a great place for Philippine Mars.