Hawaii Mars II was constructed for the US Navy in 1945 as a bomber and has had many makes use of in its 77-year life span together with most not too long ago preventing forest fires. The most important operational flying boat in existence is now up on the market, offering a crown jewel for any plane collectors’ assortment.
The historic piece is one in every of solely seven made and is the one one nonetheless flying, the airplane’s siblings embody Marianas Mars, Philippine Mars, Marshall Mars, Caroline Mars, and Hawaii Mars. Whereas it was constructed as a bomber it by no means noticed motion earlier than WWII ended and as a substitute served as a cargo and troop service till they had been decommissioned within the Fifties. Quickly after, Forest Industries Flying Tankers bought them and transformed them to firefighting water bombers.
While there is no such thing as a official account of missions this large airplane flew, there are some stories that throughout the 2009-2015 time-frame it discharged between 600 and 700 instances on behalf of British Columbia’s Wildfire Service. Primarily based on this rudimentary report, you may extrapolate for a number of extra many years to solely think about the huge variety of operations it flew.
The airplane has been maintained in flying situation and has a price ticket of $5 million (doesn’t take into consideration the few hundred-thousand a yr in upkeep) and its specs are beneath:
- Its physique runs 117 ft lengthy by 13.5 ft huge and it stands 48 ft tall on land
- Its wings span 200 ft and supply a complete space of three,686 ft
- The 4 propellers are virtually 17 ft throughout, and so they’re hooked up to 2,400-hp Wright R-3350-24WA 18-cylinder radial engines
- Its prime velocity is 225 mph and 190-mph cruise velocity with a 4,900-mile vary
- It is ready to carry 7,200 gallons of water, sufficient to douse 4 acres.