Historic B.C. water bomber arrives at Victoria museum

The Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber has made it to its retirement home without a scratch.

The 34,000-kilogram aircraft made a three-kilometre voyage from a coast guard base in North Saanich to the B.C. Aviation Museum at the Victoria International Airport on Wednesday night.

“Fences and light poles had to come down,” said Richard Mosdell, project lead for the museum’s Save the Mars Team.

It took a massive trailer, dozens of volunteers, and several hours to complete the move.

“With the aircraft being 200 feet wide and with the trailer over 100 feet long, sometimes they missed buildings, poles, and the grass berm by like two inches, but Nickel Brothers had planned it perfectly,” Mosdell said.

Nickel Brothers specializes in moving oversized loads.

“This one trumps a lot of our projects for the amount of attention because… the bomber has had a great history in B.C. and especially on Vancouver Island,” said Tim Nickell, the company’s general manager.

The Mars was used as a patrol bomber in the Second World War, then as a water bomber for firefighting in B.C.

It made its final flight on Aug. 11, flanked by the Canadian Snowbirds and watched by thousands of people as it soared from Sproat Lake near Port Alberni to North Saanich.

“We’ve finally rescued it,” Mosdell said. “Is it up there with when my kids were born? It’s pretty close!”

The Mars will be lowered onto cement pads over the next few days, just outside of the Aviation Museum’s hangar. Museum staff hope to build the Mars a hangar of its own in the next five years.

People can go see the outside of the Mars now. Tours of the inside of the aircraft are expected to begin by October.