Water bomber for sale

[Thorlifter]

I just saw a report on CNN that Wayne Coulson is selling the Martin Mars water bomber. Asking price????? $3,000,000

So if you want to fill your pool in a hurry.....and your neighbors pool.....and wash your car......and everyone elses car on the block, and clean your gutters at the same time, here would be a good way to do it.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I believe he is selling both of them.

 

[Capt. Vick]

I thought one was painted blue years ago for donation to the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Did that not happen?

 

[GrauGeist]

The Phillipine Mars was restored to it's original USN colors/markings recently and it's been retired from fire fighting for some tine, now.

The Hawaii Mars is still active in firefighting, but to a lesser degree. Currently, the Hawaii Mars is sitting in the seaplane lagoon at Oshkosh.

The upkeep on each JRM is enormous, even if they aren't flown, so I suspect that may be a contributing factor for Mr. Coulson's decision.

 

[gjs238]

On the topic of firefighting flying boat amphibious aircraft, I see that the Canadair CL-215 was produced 1969–1990 with R-2800 engines.
Canadair CL-215 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Were the R-2800's new engines or recycled?

 

[GrauGeist]

Were the R-2800's new engines or recycled?

Production by P&W for the R-2800 ended in 1960 (R-2800-CB-16)

To the best of my knowledge, there are no new R-2800 engines being made under license - this is not to say that there aren't any, just that I haven't heard about it.

 

[GregP]

Well, Rotec is making an R-2800, but that's 2800 cc ... not cubic inches, and it only makes 110 HP. You'd need quite a few of them to equal one might Pratt & Whitney unit!

They also make an R-3600 at a screaming 150 HP, so you'd need fewer of them, but that's still a lotta' engine mounts and nacelles! You'd probably run out of fuel for the first one before you got the last one started!