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Mars Bomber Drops Payload At Canada Place
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by philm.biz | January 16, 2008 at 04:17 pm
1592 views | 9 Recommendations | 5 comments
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The 'Hawaii Mars' fire fighting water bomber, which has been anchored next to Canada Place for the last three days, put on a spectacular flyby demonstration today showing how it skims the water to load up and then performing a precision drop of it's water payload.
Apparently this Mars waterbomber, which was constructed back in 1947, is second in size only to the infamous Spruce Goose. Originally designed to be a military bomber for the U.S. Navy, the design was converted to become a transport aircraft and eventually converted again in 1963 to the current water bomber configuration.
The four engined plane can carry up to 7200 gallons of water which it drops as a 'wet blanket' on forest fires. This aircraft is one of only two surviving in the world, and it's based at Sproat Lake, BC along with it's sister aircraft (the Philippine Mars).
Additional background information on these enormous aircraft can be found here.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 17:29 on January 16th, 2008
philm.biz, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 18:39 on January 16th, 2008
Hello,
7200 gallons of water - goodness! How would that compare in weight, to a full 747?
Have you or anyone else, ever seen one in action? Good story!
~ Swan
at 04:41 on January 17th, 2008
I'm glad you posted this: our very own episode of Modern Marvels.
at 04:45 on January 17th, 2008
Awesome pic! Man, that thing's a whopper...
at 12:07 on August 5th, 2009
I have seen it in action, on the big fires we had in 2003 here in Kelowna, B.C. I was wondering why with all the fires here in the Okanogan why they are not using it now???