Boneyard Safari Projects & Services
Consulting & Project Management
Specializing in Risk Management for the aviation industry and safe guarding business priorities. Relocating flyable and non flyable aircraft, restoration, aircraft reacquisition, parts acquisition. Boneyard Safari brings a team of knowledge with combined experience in the aviation industry, both civilian and military with projects across the globe.
Media Management
Motion and still imagery for advertising, documentary, recruiting, and social media presentation. Timelapse, interviews, as well as in depth research for a variety of end projects.
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Forensic Consulting and Investigation
Accuracy in interpreting the facts in mishap investigation is critical to ensuring aviation safety.
Forensic approaches focus on the detailed analysis of physical evidence, materials, and human factors to reconstruct the sequence of events and identify root causes like mechanical failure, design flaws, or maintenance errors. Scientific reconstruction of aircraft accidents and the failure analysis of aerospace components is critical to every investigation.
Boneyard Safari Projects
Philippine Mars Project
Moving aviation history takes more than a truck.
Historic aircraft don’t always get to retire where they land.
Moving a rare, oversized or irreplaceable aircraft can require months of planning, route development, permitting, specialized transportation, utility coordination, museum coordination, documentation and public outreach.
Boneyard Safari helps bring those pieces together.
We work with museums, aircraft owners, preservation organizations, transportation specialists and other partners to help plan, coordinate, document and facilitate complex aircraft relocations.
From identifying the challenge to getting an aircraft safely to its next home, our mission is simple:
Preserve aviation history and help get it where it belongs.
CASE STUDY
Philippine Mars
From Lake Pleasant to the Pima Air & Space Museum
One of Boneyard Safari’s most visible preservation projects involved the historic Martin JRM Mars flying boat Philippine Mars.
After completing her final flight from British Columbia to Arizona and making her final water landing at Lake Pleasant in February 2025, Philippine Mars faced another enormous challenge:
How do you move one of the world’s largest historic flying boats across Arizona by road?
The aircraft had to be dismantled into transportable sections before its massive fuselage could begin the journey south toward Tucson.
Moving an aircraft of this scale was anything but an ordinary heavy-haul operation.
The Philippine Mars fuselage measured approximately 137 feet long and more than 26 feet high while being transported. Its size prevented the convoy from simply using Arizona’s interstate highway system.
The resulting operation required extensive coordination involving specialized heavy-haul equipment, route planning, permits, escort vehicles, utility infrastructure and traffic management.
At points during the operation, the convoy involved dozens of vehicles and stretched for miles.
Boneyard Safari helped oversee and coordinate elements of this extraordinary preservation effort while documenting the journey and helping connect the public with the aircraft’s history.
After a multi-day journey through Arizona, the Philippine Mars fuselage reached the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson in May 2025, where the aircraft was subsequently reassembled for preservation and public display.
The project demonstrated exactly what Boneyard Safari was created to do:
Connect aviation preservation, logistics, storytelling and people to accomplish projects that initially seem impossible.
WHAT WE DO
Aircraft Relocation Project Management
Every aircraft relocation is different.
Boneyard Safari can help museums, aircraft owners and preservation organizations develop a practical path from the aircraft’s present location to its future home.
Depending on the project, that may include:
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Initial project assessment
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Aircraft relocation planning
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Transportation and heavy-haul coordination
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Route-development support
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Museum and stakeholder coordination
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Specialized vendor coordination
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Schedule and project logistics
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Aircraft disassembly/reassembly coordination
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Preservation planning
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Documentation of the relocation
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Public relations and media coordination
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Social-media storytelling
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Fundraising and public-awareness support
We understand that moving a historic aircraft isn’t simply a transportation project.
It’s a preservation project.
The aircraft may be irreplaceable. Its history matters. The organizations involved matter. And the public often wants to be part of the journey.
Boneyard Safari approaches those projects accordingly.
WHY BONEYARD SAFARI?
Aviation people. Preservation people. Storytellers.
Boneyard Safari operates at the intersection of aviation history, aircraft preservation, logistics and public engagement.
Our experience allows us to look beyond simply getting an aircraft from Point A to Point B.
We help ask the larger questions:
How can this aircraft be saved?
Who needs to be involved?
What obstacles have to be solved?
How can we build public interest around the project?
And how do we turn an aircraft relocation into a preservation story people care about?
The Philippine Mars project demonstrated the power of that approach.
Thousands of people followed the aircraft’s journey through Arizona, gathered along the route and watched as an extraordinary piece of aviation history made its way toward its new home.
PHILIPPINE MARS — IN THE NEWS
The Philippine Mars relocation received extensive television, print and aviation-media coverage.
Arizona’s Family — World War II flying boat continues trek to Pima Air & Space Museum
Interview with Boneyard Safari founder Ramon Purcell discussing the Philippine Mars relocation and its arrival in Tucson.
FOX 10 Phoenix — Philippine Mars lands at Lake Pleasant before heading to Pima Air & Space Museum
Coverage of the aircraft’s final landing, preservation and Boneyard Safari’s involvement.
AVweb — Philippine Mars Takes Its Place at Arizona Museum
Aviation-industry coverage discussing the scale of the convoy and Boneyard Safari’s role helping oversee the relocation.
Arizona Department of Transportation — How a Seaplane Travels by Land Across Arizona
ADOT’s look behind the scenes at the extraordinary permitting and transportation challenges involved in moving Philippine Mars.
Pima Air & Space Museum — Martin Mars
The museum’s official history of Philippine Mars’ final flight, arrival in Arizona, overland transportation, reassembly and preservation.
Vintage Aviation News — Philippine Mars Goes on Display at Pima Air and Space Museum
Coverage of Philippine Mars’ arrival, reassembly and eventual public display.
HAVE AN AIRCRAFT THAT NEEDS A NEW HOME?
Whether you’re dealing with a complete aircraft, an unusual airframe, an oversized museum artifact or a preservation project that simply doesn’t have an obvious roadmap, we’d like to hear about it.
Tell us where the aircraft is.
Tell us where it needs to go.
Tell us what makes the project difficult.
Then let’s figure out how to get it there.
Boneyard Safari
Aircraft Preservation • Relocation • Project Management • Storytelling