The lighter side of Flight International.
Life of Mars
Hawaii Mars – one of two surviving Martin JRM Mars flying boats from the 1940s – has made its final flight from Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island to the British Columbia Aviation Museum in Victoria. Its sibling, Philippine Mars, will be flown to its forever home, the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona later this year.
The amphibian was designed as an ocean patrol aircraft for the US Navy during the Second World War, but only five examples were built. Four were subsequently converted for use as firefighting water bombers, with Coulson Aviation operating both Philippine Mars and Hawaii Mars from 2007, until Hawaii Mars’s retirement from service in 2016.
Hawaii Mars’ final flight was piloted by Rick Matthews and Peter Killin, veterans of seaplane airline Harbour Air.
“As a fitting tribute to their years, we are pleased to see both Mars aircraft landing to rest at world class institutions in 2024,” says Coulson chief executive Wayne Coulson.
The Mars fleet flew cargo between Hawaii and the Pacific Islands to support the US Navy during the war, and later served as medical transport aircraft in the Korean War, before being decommissioned by the military in 1956.
The four surviving aircraft were converted to water bombers in the late 1950s after being bought by a consortium of timber companies in British Columbia.
Swift put down
Losing patience with reporters asking if Lockheed Martin was about to walk away from the UK’s New Medium Helicopter (NMH) contest, the defence company’s country boss Paul Livingston snapped that the trade media “can report I’m dating Taylor Swift, it doesn’t mean it’s happening”.
Days later, the company did, in fact, withdraw its bid. However, we can report that, according to a host of reputable, non-trade media web sites, the US pop megastar is still exclusive with American footballer Travis Kelce.
Return of Alitalia
Just as new Italian flag carrier ITA looks like it might be turning a profit, it has decided to re-adopt the brand of the airline it replaced, Alitalia – a business that lost money for 73 of the 74 years it existed before it ceased operations in 2021.
From now on, ITA will add the line “inspired by Alitalia” to its corporate logo.
Out of curiosity, we Googled “inspired by Sabena” to see whether any airline had successfully captured the magic of the famously loss-making Belgian flag carrier. The query came back with a shop selling crew socks.
Low-cost ripostes
Ryanair’s Twitter account is known for its caustic replies on reposts, with no mercy for moaning passengers.
Three recent ones: in response to a passenger noting sarcastically “Best view on board” alongside a selfie in the dreaded windowless seat at the back of the 737: “Take a nap”.
On a story that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had commissioned a giant sculpture of his wife for his back garden: “And E8 to sit together is too much”.
And in response to news that “Tinder is down for all users”: “Come try random seat allocation”.
Opening Pandora’s can of worms
Clashing figures of speech are an occupational hazard for any over-enthusiastic hack looking to sprinkle a bit of spice into his or her article.
However, it is global law firm Eversheds Sutherland that wins mangled metaphor of the month for this email header: “Is Smyth vs BA picking at the mortar in the wall, before opening the floodgates for UK class action litigation?”
From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@flightglobal.com
