The Mighty Martin Mars (Fire fighting aircraft)

There are a lot of fire-fighting aircraft buzzing over L.A. these days: The helos: Bell 412's, Eurocopter AS 350B2 Ecureuil , Sikorsky S-70A Firehawks, Sikorsky S-64E Skycranes and the fixed wings: DC-3, DC-4, DC-7, Lockheed P-3 Orion, Canadair CL-215, Bombardier CL-415, Consolidated PBY Catalina, Grumman S-2 Tracker, Lockheed C-130 Hercules and now DC-10's and even a Boeing 747. If you can cram a tank into it, it is now flying over the "Station"-Fire in the Angeles National Forest. 

(Hawaii Mars, above, in current paint,
Philipine Mars, below, at NAS Alameda, CA in 1945) 

I thought I had seen it all. Until today, when a 1945' Martin-Mars (Coulson Flying Tankers' "Hawaii Mars") swooped in from Canada to join the fray. The biggest flying boat of all times has a wingspan (200 ft, 60m) wider than a Boeing 747 and while considerably shorter, it is several stories high, looks very intimidating floating, and even more impressive flying. 

Only seven were ever built, "Hawaii Mars" and "Philippine Mars" are the last two surviving specimens. Now tanking up at Lake Elsinore "Hawaii Mars", (video) - doing drop-after-drop - is an amazing WWII museum piece, doing some very impressive work and awing airplane fans in the process.

However, the cost is stunning: At $ 2.50 per gallon of water ($ 0.66/liter) dropped the Martin Mars is one of the cheapest fire-fighting aircraft. Average cost for all aircraft is $ 4.00 / gal ( $ 1.06 / liter )