Cheers erupted from Sproat Lake on Sunday afternoon as the historic Hawaiian water bomber Martin Mars lifted off the water for the last time and headed for its new home in Victoria.
The water was filled with hundreds of boats, canoes and kayaks while other spectators watched from the shore on August 11, 2024. The iconic red and white water bomber took off from the Sproat Lake bomber base and circled to fly over Port Alberni’s Harbour Quay. It was scheduled to make a small tour along the east coast of Vancouver Island before landing in Patricia Bay in Victoria on Sunday evening.
“That’s where it first landed in 1959 or 1960,” said Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Aviation, on Sunday. “It’s going back to its resting place. We’ve just had it here (in Port Alberni) for 64 years.”
The Hawaii Mars was one of five Martin Mars aircraft originally designed as military bombers in the United States during World War II. It entered service as a transport aircraft for the United States Navy in 1945. After the war, it was purchased by a consortium of logging companies in British Columbia and converted to a water bomber to protect forest areas on Vancouver Island.
In 2006 it was sold – together with the Philippine Mars – to Coulson Aviation.
Although the aircraft has not participated in firefighting operations since 2015, Coulson said it has a permanent place in British Columbia’s firefighting history.
“There will never be a better firefighting aircraft, no matter what anyone says,” Coulson said. “This thing drops 1.6 hectares (of water) at a time. We’ve seen it do so much good work over the years. This aircraft will live on forever in our existing firefighting aircraft program,” he added.
The aircraft was scheduled to arrive in Victoria on Sunday evening, in formation with all nine aircraft of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds demonstration team. This week, the aircraft will be dewatered and taken to the BC Aviation Museum in North Saanich, where it will be part of the museum’s new BC Aircraft Wildfire Exhibit.
The official opening of the new exhibition to visitors is planned for Saturday, September 28. Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the interior of the aircraft and even sit in the pilot’s seat.
The bomber’s pilots, Rick Matthews and Peter Killin, will also make history. Both wore specially designed flight suits on Sunday, which will be left behind in Victoria and become part of the museum exhibition.
Matthews and Killin started together at Harbour Air in 1984 and have been flying aircraft on the West Coast for over 50 years. Killin has logged more than 1,000 hours of flight time in the bomber.
“It’s touching, it really is,” Matthews said of the crowd gathered around the lake on Sunday. “When we started this three or four months ago, I had no idea how it would turn into such an event.”
The boats, he added, were “respectful and polite” about sharing the water with the bomber.
His co-pilot Peter Killin said he was not surprised by the reception – but admitted he had never seen so many boats in the water before.
“They’re all their fans,” he said. “I know this city, I know the Lakers. That’s how it’s been for the 20 years I’ve been here.”
Coulson said they were “humbled” by the outpouring of support the assassin received from the public during his final flight.
“Several hundred people have come to see the plane,” he said. “We ran it around the lake so everyone could enjoy it in the last phase of its life, at least as far as flying goes. Now we’re handing it over to the folks at the BC Aviation Museum.”
“It’s a new chapter,” Killin added.
