Biggest seaplane in service
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Second star to the right, and straight on 'til morning
Age: 62
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The Martin Mars was the heavier and had the longest wing span. The Latecoere L.631 had a longer fuselage;
http://avia.russian.ee/air/france/latecoere_l-631.php
http://www.martinmars.com/pdf/Martin_Mars_specs.pdf
Porrohman
http://avia.russian.ee/air/france/latecoere_l-631.php
http://www.martinmars.com/pdf/Martin_Mars_specs.pdf
Porrohman
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Timbukthree
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Given that the Martin Mars was still in service less than a year ago, I'll give credit to the Mars. The Latecoere 631 provided regular passenger service for only a year before Air France ceased operations with the type. I understand that a single 631 was used for cargo operations in Africa for three years, before it was broken up for scrap.
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: South Coast
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I remember the Latecoere staging thro China Bay,Ceylon in 1950 enroute to Cat Lai. we thought the Air Hostess was the bees knees.I also remember that if the sea conditions were calm,it had an inordinatally long takeoff run.
The Mars have been bought by a local business man who intends to keep them in service. We often see them flying over during the fire season. Couple of years ago I was taking off from Mission, just got away before they closed the airport for local fires, and a Mars appeared out of an adjacent valley about 500 ft above me on its way to pick up water from a close by lake. Couldn't hang around and anyway there is an automatic five mile closure around a fire area.
