The Philippine Mars water bomber, a legendary aircraft that fought wildfires in B.C. for nearly 50 years, has completed its final flight. The massive plane left its longtime base at Sproat Lake in Port Alberni, B.C., on Sunday, bidding farewell to B.C. After a brief stop in San Francisco, the aircraft landed in Arizona’s Lake Pleasant on Monday evening. Wayne Coulson, CEO of Coulson Aviation, the company that has owned the water bomber for years, confirmed the aircraft will be dismantled before being trucked to its final resting place at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson… In the 1950s, B.C.’s forest industry purchased four of the aircraft and repurposed them into wildfire-fighting machines. Coulson Aviation purchased two in 2007—the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars.