The most celebrated of classic air tanker aircraft, the two surviving Martin JRM Mars water bombers are both headed to retirement in museums. Coulson Aviation recently announced plans to place the air tanker Hawaii Mars in the British Columbia Aviation Museum, while Philippine Mars will go to the world-class Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. The Martin JRM Mars seaplanes represent the pinnacle in American flying boat transport aviation technology. …In 1959, a consortium of Canadian logging interests formed Forest Industries Flying Tankers and purchased the four remaining JRMs for modification as firefighting air tankers. One was lost fighting fires, one was considered irreparably damaged in a 1962 storm, and the last two of the named JRMs, Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars, served as giant firefighters from the mid-1960s well into the 21st Century. They were based on Sproat Lake at Port Alberni located in the southern third of Vancouver Island.