De Havilland Canada DHC-2
Beaver
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The de
Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
is one of the most famous bush
planes in the world. After World
War II, de Havilland Canada was looking to produce a plane suited to
operations in the rugged Canadian
north. de Havilland hired veteran bush pilot Punch
Dickins as their Director of Sales and after extensive consultation
with pilots, they began production of the Beaver —a reliable,
single-engine monoplane
that could be easily fitted with wheels,
skis,
or floats.
Over 1,600 Beavers were produced.
Development
First flight of the Beaver
was August
16 1947,
with the first aircraft being delivered in April of 1948.
The plane was an immediate success within the Canadian aviation
community, and when production finally ceased in 1967,
1,657 DHC-2 Beavers had been built. The Beaver has become a symbol of
the Canadian north, and has since found use as a bush plane all over the
world; the international ICAO
designation for flight
plans is DHC2. The type is used for aerial
application; (crop
dusting and aerial
topdressing), and has been widely used by armed forces as a utility
aircraft; the U.S.
Army Air Corps purchased several hundred. Nine DHC-2s are still in
service with the [US 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; it was at one point planned to license build the type in New
Zealand.
The Beaver was designed for
flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Because it often flies
to remote locations (that often are in cold climates) its oil reservoir
filling spout is located in the cockpit itself and the oil can be
refilled while the aircraft is in flight.
Despite the fact that
production ceased nearly forty years ago, hundreds of Beavers are still
flying—many of them heavily modified to adapt to changes in technology
and needs. Kenmore
Air of Kenmore,
Washington zero-hours Beaver and Otter airframes and owns dozens of supplemental
type certificates (STCs) for aircraft modifications. These
modifications are so well-known and desirable in the aviation community
that the rebuilt Beavers are often called "Kenmore Beavers" or
listed as having "Kenmore mods" installed. A 1950s Beaver that
originally sold for under US $50,000 can now be seen for sale at prices
reaching US $500,000.
Although there have been
rumours of Canadian companies manufacturing new Beavers, it remains an
out-of-production aircraft. The remaining tooling was purchased by Viking
Air of Victoria which manfactures replacement parts for most of the
early de Havilland line. On February
24, 2006,
Viking purchased the type
certificates from Bombardier
Aerospace for all the original De Havilland designs. The ownership
of the certificates gives Viking the exclusive right to manufacture new
Beavers.
Harrison
Ford owns a DHC-2 Beaver (N28S),
and has commented that it is his favourite among his entire fleet of
private aircraft. The United States Military continues to operate two
DHC-2's at the United
States Naval Test Pilot School, where they are used to instruct
students in the evaluation of lateral-directional flying qualities and
to tow gliders.
The DHC-2 Beaver is
sometimes used by skydiving operators due to its very high rate of
climb. When fitted with a roller door that can be opened in flight, it
can ferry 8 skydivers to 13,000ft AMSL very quickly.
Specifications (DHC-2)
General Characteristics
-
Crew:
one pilot
-
Capacity:
7 passengers
-
Length:
9.22 m (30 ft 3 in)
-
Wingspan:
14.63 m (48 ft 0 in)
-
Height:
2.74 m (9 ft 0 in)
-
Wing
area: 250 ft² (23.2 m²)
-
Empty:
3,000 lb (1,360 kg)
-
Loaded:
5,100 lb (2,310 kg)
-
Useful
load: 2,100 lb (950 kg)
-
Powerplant:
1 Pratt
& Whitney R-985 Wasp Jr. radial engine, 450 hp (335 kW)
Performance
-
Maximum
speed: 255 km/h (158 mph)
-
Range:
732 km (455 miles)
-
Service
ceiling: 18,000 ft (5,500 m)
-
Rate
of climb: 1,020 ft/min (5.2 m/s)
-
Wing
loading:
-
Power/Mass:
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