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1945 Glenn L. Martin Company JRM-3
- January 9, 2023
Glenn L. Martin JRM Mars Flying Boat for Sale — The Largest Flying Boat Ever Built
The Martin JRM Mars is arguably the most extraordinary aircraft ever to be offered for civilian acquisition — the largest flying boat ever built for operational service, a four-engine behemoth of World War II naval aviation that has found a second life as the world's most capable aerial firefighting platform. Originally built as the US Navy's primary long-range patrol and transport flying boat, the Mars carried more passengers farther than any flying boat before it — with a maximum capacity of 133 troops or 84 litter patients in its wartime transport role. The surviving Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars, operated by Coulson Group in British Columbia, remain the last airworthy JRM Mars examples and the most capable water bombers ever built, capable of scooping 27,000 liters of water in a single 20-second lake run and delivering it to a fire front in a single pass.
Engineering Scale
The JRM Mars's dimensions are difficult to fully appreciate without standing beside one. The aircraft's wingspan stretches 200 feet — wider than a Boeing 737. Its hull is 117 feet long. Four Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major engines — the most powerful radial piston aircraft engines ever built, each producing 2,500 horsepower — drive four-bladed Hamilton Standard propellers of enormous diameter. Fully loaded with water, the Mars weighs approximately 165,000 pounds at takeoff from the water surface. No other operational aircraft in the world comes close to this combination of size, power, and water-carrying capacity.
Aerial Firefighting Legacy
The surviving Mars aircraft have operated as aerial firefighting water bombers in British Columbia since 1959 — the longest operational career of any military aircraft type in the world. Their ability to deliver water to inaccessible mountain fires through low-level water drops on lakes and rivers that smaller aircraft cannot use makes them operationally irreplaceable in certain terrain types. The acquisition of a JRM Mars would represent one of the most ambitious and historically significant aircraft purchases ever undertaken by a private buyer or organization.
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