AirInsight recorded a very interesting audio interview today with Wayne Coulson, the CEO of Coulson Flying Tankers. Most of the interview covered the history of their two Martin Mars aircraft, the Philippine Mars and the Hawaii Mars, but he also discussed their C-130Q air tanker that carries 4,000 gallons of fire retardant. You can listen to it below.
The Martin Mars, built in 1945, were converted to water scooping air tankers and are not amphibious like the CL-215/415 — they always have to land on water. The huge aircraft can carry 7,200 gallons of water which can be mixed with gel concentrate to drop on fires.
The Hawaii Mars has been busy fighting fires off and on for quite some time, however it does not have a contract this year and is for sale, Mr. Coulson said. They have been talking to an interested buyer who wants to put it in a warbird collection in Hawaii, but nothing is finalized yet.
Below is an excerpt from the August, 2014 issue of a Coulson company newsletter in which Mr. Coulson describes some of the recent history of the aircraft:
We took the Hawaii Mars to the October, 2007 San Diego fire storm in Southern California. In 2008, we spent the summer at Lake Shasta in Northern California when the State declared a National Emergency after thousands of lightning strikes. 2009 led us to Southern California with the USFS, where we spent 160 days in the Los Angeles basin at Lake Elsinore. 2010 brought us back to BC which was a slow fire season. In 2011, we got out early and performed a 20-day contract in Mexico that was featured on a Discovery Channel show, Mighty Planes; we then ended up spending the rest of the fire season in Alberta. In 2012 and 2013, the Mars was back in BC.
The Philippine Mars has not seen firefighting action in years. In the May, 2014 newsletter Mr. Coulson wrote about the plans for the aircraft:
We continue to make progress on the transfer of the Philippine Mars to the Pensacola Naval Museum located in Florida.
This project has been three years in the making and I believe this summer we will be delivering the Mars to Pensacola as we continue to finalize the paperwork.
The trade will allow us to acquire two C-130 Hercules aircraft, currently located at the Museum, which will become a significant parts supply for our firefighting C-130. We will be sending a team to Pensacola to retrieve these aircraft and I will continue to provide updates as we move forward. Other aircraft that will be part of this trade will be a Grumman F6F Hellcat. For your information, the Grumman F6F Hellcat was one of the best aircraft carrier fighters in the Pacific theatre in 1943 and was superior to the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero.
The other aircraft of interest is the NK 1 Japanese Rex which was built in 1943 as a float plane fighter. This aircraft also operated in the Pacific theatre, and, once we receive these two colourful aircraft, we will provide the interesting history of each unique flying machine.
In the interview Mr. Coulson said he expects they will fly the Philippine Mars to Pensacola in October. With a 14-hour range, they could fly non-stop, however going over the Rocky Mountains without deicing capability would be problematic, so they are planning to land at Lake Elsinore in southern California to refuel, then fly direct to Pensacola from there.
The video below, recorded on July 18, 2014, shows the Philippine Mars with all four engines running for their weekly start.
