Posted on 06/23/2009 11:19:06 AM PDT by SERKIT
One of the last two Flying Boats from World War II -- a 747-sized airplane that can only land on water -- will be floating on Lake Elsinore this summer, ready to dump tons of water on Southern California wildfires.
One of the last two Flying Boats from World War II -- a 747-sized airplane that can only land on water -- will be floating on Lake Elsinore this summer, ready to dump tons of water on Southern California wildfires, it was reported today.
A Martin Mars JRM-3 flying boat -- with a wingspan greater than a Boeing 747 -- is scheduled to arrive in Southern California this week, according to the Press-Enterprise newspaper of Riverside.
Operated by Coulson Flying Tankers of British Columbia, Canada, the lumbering World War II-vintage aircraft will be rented to the U.S. Forest Service for its capacity to drop tons of water or slurry on wildfires.
The private company that owns the plane says it has failed to reach a rental agreement with Cal Fire, meaning the large fire apparatus may remain docked at a Lake Elsinore campground during some fires, Lake Elsinore Fire chief Jerry Hendershot told his city council recently, the Press-Enterprise reported.
Jason Kirshner, a spokesman for the Forest Service, indicated the plane could be available if any of the federal agency's partners in firefighting request it, the paper said.
Use of the Martin Mars tanker would be considered on a fire-to-fire basis by an incident commander, Cal Fire-Riverside County Capt. Fernando Herrera told the Press-Enterprise.
"It's a very large aircraft," Herrera said. "It may not be able to fly in some of the canyons."
Lake Elsinore signed an agreement in early June with the Forest Service to temporarily base the WW2-era Navy troop and cargo carrier on the lake, the Press-Enterprise reported. It is expected to arrive after an airworthiness inspection.
The plane is one of the two flying specimens left of what was supposed to be a fleet of U.S. Navy Flying Boats designed during World War II. Only seven were built before the war ended, and the squadron spent 10 years on San Francisco Bay before being decommissioned in 1955.
Most were scrapped, but two Flying Boats were purchased by a Canadian company and used to scoop up water from lakes and bays to fight fires in British Columbia. They have been sold to a new company, which tried but failed to win a government contract to fight fires in California last year.
The Martin Mars tankers use a crew of four. Portions of Lake Elsinore will be closed to boating if the plane will need to scoop up 7,200 gallons of water per pass.
Brings to mind the old urban myth about the body of a scuba diver found in the ashes of a forest fire...
That is cool!
It looks like a flying apartment building.
What if it only needs to pick up 6,800 gallons of water per pass?
/johnny
Great, now I am going to be rooting for wildfires in the Central Sierras, in hopes of seeing this lumbering behemoth in action.
Ditto, thanks for posting.
Is there that much water in Lake Elsinore?
I wonder what happened to all the P-5Ms the Navy retired back in the 70’s. They were a smaller, two engined version of the Mars that might be able to work in areas too small for this monster. If sea planes make good water bombers because they can reload from any standing body of water then I’d think the Mariners would make good candidates.
Mythbusted.
I think thats the Martin Mariner. The last one is parked out here at the Pima Air Museum.
That's what I was wondering. I was hired once by a RE developer to study Lake Elsinore (Lake "Hell, senor") to see what would be needed to make it attractive lake front property. After a week, I went to him and said "Well, first, we need to find 20 billion gallons of water". That was the end of that job.
7,200 gallons of water x 7 lbs/gal = 50,400 lbs.
50,400 lbs = 25.2 tons
It just “scoops down” to pick up 25 tons? Holy cow!
But...yeah it's shallow.
I remember when that area was in the sticks.....and all Elsinore was really known for was the motorcycle race.
My older sister lived not far from there in the early 80's at Canyon Lake.......
Bombardier makes a cool one like that
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