As a balloonist, he was a student of Thomas Scott Baldwin, and as an airplane pilot, of Glenn Curtiss.

On December 18, 1910, Mars made the longest plane glide on record when his carburetor froze at 4,000 feet (1,200 m) during an aviation meet in Fresno, California.

[2] On December 31, 1910, Mars made the first airplane flight in Hawaii on a Curtiss B18 biplane.

[3][4] He was credited in 1911 with being the first pilot to bring aviation to the Far East,[5] although flights had been made in both Japan and Vietnam in late 1910.

[1] Mars died on July 25, 1944, in Los Angeles, California.