Mars Bomber Pix

[kroberts]

For those of you who aren't airplane geeks. This aircraft is the Martin Mars Flying Boat. They were built for WWII. There are 2 or 3 left IIRC, all owned by an outfit in B.C. Canada who modified them and use them for forest fire fighting. They are freeking huge! The text that accompanied the pix said these were taken at Lake Elsinore California during the recent fires in SoCal. This was some serious flying.

[h0lmes]

Looks a lot like the Spruce Goose

[Bill-B]

damn, that looks like it would take hella skill

[TwoJ's]

Very cool plane. So do they just land in water, fill resevoirs, take off and go dump it?

[kroberts]

What is really impressive about the "refilling" task is that the plane doesn't stop. The pilot approaches the lake and just sets the plane down on the water while maintaining sufficient airpseed for flight. The fill scoops open and physics fills the tanks up. Meanwhile, the aircraft's gross weight is increasing at a rapid rate. The pilot has to maintain airspeed, constantly adjust for the increasing weight, and keep enough of the plane in the water to fill the tanks. I looked up some info on the plane. The tank holds 7200 gallons-that's over 56000 pounds of water!

[kroberts]

Here's a picture to help give an idea how big this thing is...




The wingspan is 200 feet.

[Ral]

Thanks dude. That flying's really hot shit- check out this video that my prof sent me a while ago

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4b_1193018591

[Coco Savage]

thats fvking awesome

[delatlanta1281]

That is so cool watching them fly that low!
Total studs.