Is this the 4 Piston engine flying boat long cross country ever? Or last 4 piston engine flying boat flight ever?

As for the longest XC for 4 piston flying boat, these planes regularly flew to Hawaii from the West Coat, so maybe not.

Found this in Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_JRM_Mars

U.S. Navy service

Named the Marianas Mars, Philippine Mars, Marshall Mars, Caroline Mars, and a second Hawaii Mars, the five production Mars aircraft entered service ferrying cargo to Hawaii and the Pacific Islands on 23 January 1944.[7] The last production airplane (the Caroline Mars) was designated JRM-2, powered by 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines, and featured a higher maximum weight and other improvements. On 4 March 1949, the Caroline Mars set a new world passenger load record by carrying 269 people fr


As for the last 4 piston engine flying boat flight ever, YUP, that it is.

4PM LOCAL. 12/21/24 Just visited Alameda Sea plane lagoon and the USS Hornet AIR, Sea and space museum. Low ceiling. Must fog. No sign of C-FLYK

Quoting parts from the linked article,

Philippine Mars is set to stay in Patricia Bay for Christmas, its trip to an American aviation museum likely delayed to the second or third week of January.

It was flown to Patricia Bay for repairs, but the decision was made to keep it there for now. Crews will be working on it in the new year, Wayne Coulson, chief executive of plane owner Coulson Aviation, said Friday evening.

The idea is to give the retired water bomber one last mechanical overview by Coulson Aviation engineers before another attempt to make the trip to Arizona, Coulson said.

“We want to go through the engines again and make sure all the valves are dialed in on the other motors,” he said.

Mid-January at the earliest it appears.

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-new ... irectshare

Yeah I worded that wrong. LAST long cross country for a 4 engine piston flying boat. Or really any flight of one. Yes they flew many many long trips in service. Sad to know there are none out there somewhere. It was nice for years that the Mars were still out there somewhere working. I'm not sure that I like living in the era of "Lasts" not "Firsts".



As for the longest XC for 4 piston flying boat, these planes regularly flew to Hawaii from the West Coat, so maybe not.

Found this in Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_JRM_Mars

U.S. Navy service

Named the Marianas Mars, Philippine Mars, Marshall Mars, Caroline Mars, and a second Hawaii Mars, the five production Mars aircraft entered service ferrying cargo to Hawaii and the Pacific Islands on 23 January 1944.[7] The last production airplane (the Caroline Mars) was designated JRM-2, powered by 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-4360 engines, and featured a higher maximum weight and other improvements. On 4 March 1949, the Caroline Mars set a new world passenger load record by carrying 269 people fr


As for the last 4 piston engine flying boat flight ever, YUP, that it is.

If you want to look at long flights for a 4-engine flying boat, don't forget the Boeing 314 that was out in the Pacific on Dec. 7, 1941. Fast conference on what to do.....do NOT come back to HNL. So, the plane and crew flew the rest of the way (westbound) around the world! They started out flying in the tropics, so when they arrived at the LGA terminal in winter, they all had only their tropical clothes.

I was thinking about the scope, pun intended of "make sure all the valves are dialed in on the other motors".

I don't know if that means a borescope inspection or perhaps measure something with the valves. Regardless that is 28 cylinders each on the other 3 engines to look at 84 cylinders in total. All on a frigid probably damp lake, current temperature at about 8:15 AM local ~ 47' F.
Brrrr. That is a lot of work.

Here is an article on what Rick mentioned.

https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/edit ... ial-flight

If the linked information is correct.

Taking a look at The Boeing 314 "Clipper", it had a Gross Weight of 84,000 lbs.
https://www.clipperflyingboats.com/pan-am/boeing-b314

The later designed and built Martin Mars came in over 164,000 lbs.
https://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acdata_php ... e_vignette

I had no idea that there was that much difference

Caught this little bit of information on FaceBook. I'll call it progress towards eventually the Philippine Mars being retired in Arizona.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q= ... ine%20mars

Ruth McCubbin is with Campbell McCubbin.
19h ·
Bizarre scene on the Satellite Channel this afternoon, as the Philippine Martin Mars water bomber was under tow, heading North. You'll recall the Philippine Mars was to have flown to a permanent home in Arizona before Christmas, when she flew over Artubus Ridge a few times, then made an unscheduled landing in Pat Bay. Today, she was towed from Pat Bay, past Patey Rock, towards Cow Bay.

Found another interesting post.

Apparently, this post suggests that they are planning to haul out of the water. Makes sense if we consider the quote from Wayne Coulson posted on 12/22/24, “We want to go through the engines again and make sure all the valves are dialed in on the other motors,” he said."

Would be a whole later easier to do on a ramp, than on the water, I am sure.

UkeeTube · Follow
36m ·
Our East-Island correspondent (my dad) has confirmed that the Philippine Mars has been towed to Cowichan Bay near Pacific Industrial and Marine presumably to make use of their large ramp to pull her out for the next round of repairs. Photos from this morning (Jan 7, 2025) #VancouverIsland #PortAlberni #Aviation

Some speculation from this Facebook post that the Hawaii Mars may be donating another engine to the Philippine Mars for the journey.


Johnny Killmore
20h ·
Well, Philippine Mars got towed up to a different bay, probably because it will be easier to work on. Now there's a crane at the museum when Hawaii Mars lives, so we can guess that it's about to donate another engine to get its sister ship down to Arizona.

I was thinking about the scope, pun intended of "make sure all the valves are dialed in on the other motors".

I don't know if that means a borescope inspection or perhaps measure something with the valves. Regardless that is 28 cylinders each on the other 3 engines to look at 84 cylinders in total. All on a frigid probably damp lake, current temperature at about 8:15 AM local ~ 47' F.
Brrrr. That is a lot of work.

I didn't know these had R-4360 engines (28 cylinders each), I thought they were R-3350 (18 cylinders each).

Dan

A fresh news article from yesterday.

"Engine 4 of the bomber is cracked, so on Wednesday Coulson engineers replaced it with a working engine from the Hawaii Mars, which has been retired to the BC Aviation Museum in Sidney. Once that’s installed, the plane will make another trip to Sproat Lake for a re-fit.

“We’re going to do an engine swap, we believe, then deliver the airplane by the end of the month,” says Coulson."


https://cheknews.ca/bay-to-bay-philippi ... PDtckXjYgQ

Not the best picture but clearly #4 engine replaced, including the cowling from the Hawaii Mars to the Philippine Mars.