The Philippine Mars is one of two surviving Martin JRM-1 seaplanes built for the U.S. Navy in World War II. Until last year they were working fire bombers, based in British Columbia. Both retired this year: the Hawaii Mars is now at the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Canada; the Philippine Mars, most recently, is at the Pima Air & Space Museum (PASM) in Tucson, Arizona. Since I live in Tucson and was a volunteer docent at PASM for many years, I've been following the delivery of the Philippine Mars to its new home in Arizona.
In a previous post, I described how the Philippine Mars was flown from its former base in British Columbia to Lake Pleasant, north of Phoenix, beached, taken apart, then towed overland to PASM in Tucson. That was two weeks ago. I speculated then that it might be a while before the aircraft is reassembled and put on display at the museum.
I may have been wrong. Working with Southwest Industrial Rigging, the PASM restoration team already has the Philippine Mars put back together (minus the engines, which will probably be next). Courtesy of local business Boneyard Safari, which has been granted access to the reassembly site in a closed-to-the-public back lot of the museum, I have photos and a video to share:
Next to be remounted, I suspect, will be the engines, currently sitting in the shade of the main restoration hangar "carport":
Again, thanks to Boneyard Safari for the photos and video, originally posted to its Facebook and Twitter pages. I'll keep you posted on the Philippine Mars' progress.
— back to the Air-Minded Index
