Iconic Hawaii Mars Water Bomber set to make final flight
Aug 9, 2024, 10:06 AM | Updated: Sep 27, 2024, 6:20 am
When an iconic firefighting aircraft makes its final flight on Sunday, residents of Vancouver Island and Victoria, BC will look skyward to catch a glimpse – and hear the distinctive sound – of the Hawaii Mars Water Bomber.
Technically speaking, the Hawaii Mars Water Bomber is a surplus US Navy amphibious transport from World War II. A total of only seven were built, and four of them were converted in the early 1960s to “water bombers” to fight wildfires in British Columbia. One of the last two surviving examples will make its final flight on Sunday from its base at Sproat Lake in the middle of Vancouver Island, to Patricia Bay near the Victoria Airport on Vancouver Island. Final destination is the British Columbia Aviation Museum.
That’s technically speaking, of course, but speaking technically can be kind of dry.
Richard Mosdell – the 52-year-old resident of Victoria, BC and volunteer who masterminded the Hawaii Mars being donated by Coulson Aviation to the museum – paints a non-technical but much more exciting word picture.
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“Take the biggest ferry you’ve ever seen, paint it fire engine red,” Mosdell told KIRO Newsradio on Thursday. “Throw on two 747 wings on the side, but with big, massive propeller engines, then make it float. Put a huge tail on it.”
“When the engines roll, it’s wonderful, you know, those radial engines, that deep sound,” Mosdell continued. “And the lines of it are wonderful, the old Art Deco long streaming lines down the side, and we’re talking about a beautiful flying boat.”
Even those who don’t consider themselves aviation enthusiasts will find it hard to not agree that the Hawaii Mars is beautiful and huge. And, says Richard Mosdell, thanks to fighting wildfires throughout the region for more than 60 years, the Hawaii Mars is well-known and beloved in British Columbia, partly because the giant flying fire station has been a fixture of summertime news reports for decades.
“The Mars was on TV almost every day [and] was in the newspaper a lot saving homes,” Mosdell explained. “People remember it saving their businesses. We just talked to someone the other day who remembers seeing it drop water on a lumber mill that was on fire in Vancouver [B.C.].”
“These planes have a really strong connection to all of B.C.,” Mosdell said.
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Mosdell says that sometime on Sunday, August 11, 2024 – actual time TBD, check the BC Aviation Museum’s website for the latest updates – the Hawaii Mars will take off from Sproat Lake for the very last time, and fly south along Vancouver Island’s east coast over the lumber communities it once protected and served. About midway down the island, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Snowbirds will join the flight in formation, and will get ready to do some of their famous moves over the greater Victoria area.
When the formation gets closer to the provincial capital, Mosdell says, it should be quite a moving display of aviation technology and history.
“We haven’t seen the exact flight plan, but what I have heard and what has been approved, is that they can fly down, perhaps fly across the airport, follow the coastline all the way around into the Inner Harbor in downtown Victoria,” Mosdell said. “At that point, the Snowbirds will do their ‘burst’” – that’s a familiar maneuver with all nine planes gaining altitude and then shooting off in opposite directions – “and then the Mars will do a turn, follow the coastline back, fly across the airport and land” on the water in Patricia Bay, just west of Victoria International Airport (which is home to the BC Aviation Museum).
Mosdell told KIRO Newsradio that the turnout in and along Patricia Bay is anticipated to be bigger than when Queen Elizabeth visited Victoria many years ago. Mosdell will be watching from a helicopter following the Hawaii Mars and Snowbirds; the Hawaii Mars will have only pilots and flight engineers aboard for its final flight.
Once the massive flying boat touches down, it will take several days to remove it from the water and prepare it for display on land.
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De-watering the gigantic artifact, says Mosdell, is “probably harder than the landing, because it has to be moved like ‘plane yoga’ through all the breakwaters and all the pillars and up onto land.”
From there, an enormous house-moving cradle will carry the wheel-less Hawaii Mars to a spot adjacent to the BC Aviation Museum. Long-term plans are to build a giant new display hangar to protect the aircraft from the elements, but that doesn’t mean the public won’t be able to get a closer look much sooner.
“On Saturday, September 28 we have the grand opening with the ribbon cutting,” Mosdell said. “So people can go actually inside the plane for the first time ever.”
Mosdell says total cost of the project will likely exceed $1 million, with several donors already committing funds to help what feels to many like an old friend.
“I’m happy to take your credit card,” Mosdell joked. But “people can donate to our GoFundMe page” to help defray the costs of moving and creating a permanent home for the landmark plane.
“We really appreciate that,” Mosdell said, “because saving history is for future generations.”
You can hear Feliks Banel every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien. Read more from Feliks here and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea or a question about Northwest history, please email Feliks. You can also follow Feliks on X.
