De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
| DHC-2 Beaver | |
|---|---|
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| A de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver Mk1 on floats | |
| Role | STOL utility transport |
| National origin | Canada |
| Manufacturer | de Havilland Canada |
| First flight | August 16, 1947 |
| Introduction | 1948 |
| Status | Production completed |
| Primary users | regional and remote air carriers United States Army Civil Air Patrol |
| Produced | 1947–1967 |
| Number built | 1,657 |
| Developed into | DHC-3 Otter |
The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, primarily known as a bush plane. It is used for cargo and passenger hauling, aerial application (crop dusting and aerial topdressing), and has been widely adopted by armed forces as a utility aircraft. The United States Army purchased several hundred; nine DHC-2s are still in service with the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary (Civil Air Patrol) for search and rescue. A Royal New Zealand Air Force Beaver supported Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition to the South Pole. Over 1,600 Beavers were produced until 1967 when the original assembly line shut down.
Due to its success, the Royal Canadian Mint commemorated the Beaver on a special edition Canadian quarter in November 1999.
After the war, de Havilland Canada management turned to the civilian market for work, aware that military contracts were unlikely to guarantee business. The company had recently hired Punch Dickins, a famous bush pilot, as Director of Sales who began an extensive program of collecting requests from other pilots, to understand what they needed in a new aircraft. Almost without variation, the pilots asked for tremendous extra power and STOL performance, in a design that could be easily fitted with wheels, skis or floats. When de Havilland engineers noted that this would result in poor cruise performance, one pilot replied "You only have to be faster than a dog sled". Other suggestions were seemingly mundane but important in the bush plane world; full-sized doors were installed on both sides of the aircraft so it could be easily loaded no matter which side of a dock it tied up on. The doors were also made wide enough to allow for a 44 Imperial gallon drum to be rolled up into the aircraft.
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