[OrioleFan]

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.

I believe Canada got 4 of the flying boats. One was lost in a accident, one was lost in a typhoon. The also got all the spare parts which I believe included 60 spare engines. I think they paid $50,000 for the whole lot.

The Martin Museum put in a bid for one of the planes, but lost to the current owner. There are stories in Canada about these planes putting out fires before the firefighters could get to them up there. Also because the planes skim over the lake to pick up a load of water, they can actually put more water on a fire than that DC-10 that CalFire uses.

[GOYAKLA]

When the 5 missing TBF’s off of Florida in 1945 a Martin Mariner was lost during the search. It was believed to have exploded in the air with no survivors or wreckage ever found.