On a warm Sunday afternoon in August 2024, a crimson-and-white flying boat the size of an airliner lifted off a lake on Vancouver Island for the last time. Tens of thousands of people lined the shore. Nine red Snowbirds jets slid into formation alongside her. And a 78-year-old aeroplane that had spent half a century dousing wildfires flew home to a museum.

Her name is Hawaii Mars, and she is one of only two Martin Mars flying boats left in the world — the largest water bombers ever to fly.

Built to cross an ocean, not fight fires

The Mars was born in 1941 as a giant Navy patrol bomber, a scaled-up cousin of the Martin PBM Mariner. The prototype first flew in June 1942 — but by the time the production JRM Mars boats were ready, the war was ending, and only a handful were ever built. With a 200-foot wingspan and four Wright R-3350 radials, these “flying dreadnoughts” spent their Navy careers hauling cargo and troops across the Pacific.

A second life as a firefighter

Their real fame came later. In 1960 a British Columbia forestry consortium bought the surplus Mars and had them converted into water bombers. A plywood tank in the hull and retractable scoops let a Mars skim across a lake, swallow around 27,000 litres of water in roughly 22 seconds, and dump it on a wildfire. From 1960 to 2015 the great boats fought fires up and down the province.

Over its long career the Hawaii Mars alone dropped an estimated 50 million gallons of water — a figure its last operator, Coulson Aviation, reckons makes it the most effective firefighting aircraft in history.

The last flight

By 2024 only the Hawaii Mars still flew. On August 11 it lifted off Sproat Lake at 3:20 p.m., pilots Peter Killin and Rick Matthews at the controls and the Coulson family aboard, for a farewell circuit of the lake and a route that traced the forest communities the Mars had protected. Near Crofton it met the nine jets of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, who escorted it to Patricia Bay, where thousands had gathered to watch it land.

Full circle

Days later the boat was winched up a Coast Guard ramp at Patricia Bay — the very ramp used in 1960 to haul the Mars ashore for its conversion into a water bomber. It now stands as the centrepiece of the museum’s BC Wildfire Aviation exhibit, where visitors can climb inside the hull and even sit at the controls.

For 78 years the Hawaii Mars did big, unglamorous, dangerous work above the treetops. Now she rests on solid ground, where a crowd can still walk up and marvel at the largest water bomber the world ever built.

Sources: Skies Magazine; The War Zone; BC Aviation Museum; Coulson Aviation; Wikipedia.