Martin Mars (Philippine) coming to Pima Air and Space Museum

As of today 2/12/05, the Philippine Mars has been pulled out of the water. The aircraft will be disassembled and transported to the Pima Air and Space Museum for reassembly. Hopefully, someone will post some images of the disassembly process for this aircraft.

Tommy
 
3/17/05 update...

An interesting video update showing the progress in the deconstruction of the Philippine Mars at Lake Pleasant.


Tommy
 
4/9/05 update...

I think this is as far a they're going to take it with the deconstruction of the Philippine Mars at Lake Pleasant. I think moving forward, they are going to truck the fuselage and wing box as is to Pima. I think?


Tommy
 
4/15/05 Update:

The fuselage is loaded up and ready to roll!

Tommy


rV6ZO0S.jpg
 
jmbiii said:
Sorta sad watching it being taken apart.
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hertzie said:
Do hope they didn't lost the assembly manual (lol)

hertzie
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I have mixed feelings about the decommissioning and deconstruction of this aircraft, as the Martin Mars was still a viable firefighting aircraft. It was more about politics than operational cost, parts availability, etc., that grounded these aircraft, but that's water under the bridge. On the upside, the deconstruction of the Philippine Mars has given me a much better sense of the internal structure and how systems were tied together within and to the visible exterior surfaces. These are things that even the "Erection and Maintenance Handbook" doesn't make quite clear. Hopefully, many high-definition videos and photos of the deconstruction were taken and will be available to the masses for future historical reference. If not, this would be another missed opportunity for the aviation community. It would also be nice if the Wayne Coulson/Steve Ginter book on the Martin Mars was updated to document the decommissioning of the Hawaii and Philippine Mars, especially the deconstruction/reconstruction of the Philippine Mars. I am not sure if Steve Ginter is still around, or if it would be viable to do so.

My father shared his memories of flying on the Martin Mars a few times between Oakland and Hawaii; he was so happy when the DC-8 finally showed up on the scene. :)

The Virtavia Martin Mars in FSX was my favorite aircraft, and I did a bunch of repaints for it. I was hoping to see it resurrected for MSFS 2020, but Phil at Virtavia said he has no plans of doing so as he has found that flying boats are notoriously low volume, slow sellers. The additional time and effort needed to create native MSFS 2020 and 2024 aircraft doesn't help the cause.

Tommy
 
"The Virtavia Martin Mars in FSX was my favorite aircraft, and I did a bunch of repaints for it."

Hi Tommy, would love to have your updates.

Regards, Erik.
 
hertzie said:
"The Virtavia Martin Mars in FSX was my favorite aircraft, and I did a bunch of repaints for it."

Hi Tommy, would love to have your updates.

Regards, Erik.
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I'm not sure if I'm reading your comment correctly, but all of my Martin Mars repaints are still available in Avsim's Library. Some are a bit goofy, some OK, etc.

Tommy
 
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