Martian Invasion - Martin Mars Comes to Oshkosh

Of the seven massive Martin Mars flying boats built in 1942-43 as cargo and troop transports for the U.S. Navy, just one, the Hawaii Mars, still flies regularly and it came to #OSH16.

[@stevansweeney]

Wonderful!

[@BetterAircraftFabric]

Yeah that was wonderful to see in Oshkosh !!! - Really Appreciated it ! Thanks for posting ! Regards from Alaska! (- and this year Oshkosh should be great with the A-20 Havoc, B29 Doc and all ! - will be there!!! )

[@OneGenericName]

Now I'm sorry to have missed Oshkosh this year

[@Dbodell8000]

The Spruce Goose was just a wooden prototype that flew once very very briefly no comparison to the Mars.

[@andrewb.5996]

Nice vid....EH!

[@hamishdavidson3368]

Please save these planes

[@Dbodell8000]

The Hawaii Mars. Has been saved as it has now been donated to the BC aviation museum on Vancouver Island. Hope fully the Philippine Mars will find a good home too.

[@CampFredo]

@@Dbodell8000 It's going to Tuscon, Arizona at the Piedmont Museum

[@Dbodell8000]

@@CampFredo 👍

[@redf1966]

The Mars was supposed to go Oshkosh this year in 2017, but never made it, probably because of all the major wildfires across BC' the Mars was not used to fight the blazes, which makes me wonder why Coulson even bothered to do all those expensive high tech cockpit upgrades. The supersonic Concorde also had major upgrades too, only 18 months before the planes were suddenly and permanently retired for good in 2003, I couldnt help but notice the similarities.

[@acolyteoffire4077]

they probbqbly did it to "increase" the cost of the plane so it is more likely to be shut down.

[@davidfowlerjr6114]

If only 7 were built and only the 2 remain, where is the other 5?...Crashed?

[@andrewc9234]

first 2 were scrapped, caroline mars, martin mars and marianas mars were all destroyed. Hawaii mars II is still operated by coulson, phillipine mars has been repainted into US navy colours and is awaiting federal ruling on if it will be moved to a museum in florida

[@acolyteoffire4077]

why museum it? its a working piece of history, i dont mean just working as flying but its still doing a job that it does EXTREMELY well.

[@andrewc9234]

because they are insanely expensive to operate, forestry services want turbine powered since theyre more reliable etc, big pistons are a thing of the past now

[@thomasharmon6444]

I think 2 crashed and one damaged in a storm after being sold by the US Navy. Two lost due to flying forest fires getting too low and slow.

[@elanthys]

@@andrewc9234 Why is a federal ruling needed?

[@DEVASTATOR478]

similar but smaller than Spruce goose .

[@Dbodell8000]

The Mars had long very useful careers. The SpruceGoose was simply a wooden prototype that only flew very briefly one time.

[@randipchakravorty8803]

yet seen the vedio

[@d.cypher2920]

I believe there is still a Martin Mars in phillipines? So... that's 3 left?

[@elanthys]

No, they're two planes, one is Philippine Mars and is no longer airworthy, and the other one (shown here) is Hawaii Mars. All planes in the series were called after islands.

[@danwaldie4661]

@@elanthysPHILLIPEAN MARS is at Sproat lake on Vancouver island but is not airworthy. There are only two Mars remaining out of original four.

[@elanthys]

@@danwaldie4661 that’s… what I said..?

[@richardvalitalo3670]

So everyone got a shower ?