B.C. waterbomber heading to California wildfires

One of B.C.'s most famous aircraft, a Martin Mars water bomber, is taking off from Vancouver Island on Friday to fight wildfires in California.

The bombers made a big splash whenone flewto California last fall to fight wildfires.

But this is the first time the world's largest amphibious aircraft has been hired directly by the U.S. government, this time to fight the fires near the city of Redding, in northern California.

It's a relationship the owner of the Mars, Wayne Coulson, began a few months ago.

"Over the winter we did some testing of the Mars to drop water on federal land, so now the aircraft did extremely well, and we've been contacted by the [U.S.] federal government," said Coulson.

He also has a contract with the B.C. government to have his two planes available through the summer for June,July and August, but he's hoping to have steady work in the U.S. when not active in B.C.

His company, Coulson Water Tankers, based in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, owns the two remaining 60-year-old Martin Mars bombers, but won't put the second in service until there is regular demand.

Originally, a group of forestry companies bought four of the surplus troop and cargo carriers from the U.S. navy and converted them into waterbombers in 1959.

One was destroyed in an accident in 1962. A second was destroyed in a hurricane the same year. The remaining two aircraft were eventually sold to Coulson in April 2007.

The aircraft can scoop up and drop 27,000 litres of water every 15 minutes, covering an area of 1.6 hectares, and have been deployed to fight wildfires around the world.