De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver

infobox Aircraft
name = DHC-2 Beaver
type = STOL utility transport
manufacturer = de Havilland Canada



caption =An Adlair Aviation Ltd. Beaver Mk.I on floats.
designer = Fred Buller and R.D. "Dick" Hiscocks
first flight = 16 August 1947
introduced = 1948
primary user = regional and remote air carriers
more users = U.S. Army Kenmore Air Civil Air Patrol
produced = 1947–1967
number built = 1,657
unit cost = 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 U.S. Army Air Corps purchased several hundred and 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 line shut down, and today the aircraft is in such demand that there is a steady market for finding surplus examples in air museums and rebuilding them.

The Beaver is one of the most famous bush planes in the world. Due to this success, the Royal Canadian Mint commemorated the Beaver on a in November 1999.

Design and development

In the immediate post-war era, de Havilland Canada management turned to the civilian market for continued 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, and he began an extensive program of collecting requests from other pilots in order 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; for instance, 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.

de Havilland officially put together a design team on September 17, 1946, consisting of Fred Buller, Dick Hiscocks, Jim Houston and W. Jakimiuk, lead by Phil Garratt. The new aircraft was specifically designed to be all-metal, unlike older designs like the famous Noorduyn Norseman, using “steel from the engine to the firewall, heavy aluminum truss frames with panels and doors throughout the front seat area, lighter trusses toward the rear and all monocoque construction aft”. At the time de Havilland Canada was still a British company, and there were plans to fit the evolving design with a British engine. This limited power, so the wing area was greatly increased in order to maintain STOL performance. When Pratt & Whitney Canada offered to supply war-surplus convert|450|hp|abbr=on Wasp Jr engines at a low price, the aircraft ended up with extra power as well as the original long wing. The result was unbeatable STOL performance for an aircraft of its size.

After much testing, and with adjustments and improvements, the innovative airplane was ready for the sales circuit. It just needed a proper name. Since de Havilland Canada airplanes were all named after animals, it was decided that the new bush plane was much like the hard-working beaver. The first flight of the DHC-2 Beaver was in Downsview, Ontario by Second World War flying ace Russell Bannock on 16 August 1947. The first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, a design partner, in April 1948.

Initial sales were slow, perhaps two or three a month, but as the plane was demonstrated sales started to improve. A key event in the Beaver's history occurred the next year when the US Army started looking for a new utility aircraft to replace their Cessnas. The competition quickly boiled down to the Beaver and the Cessna 195, but the Beaver completely outperformed the 195 and led to orders for hundreds of aircraft. Soon the factory was producing hundreds a month, and orders started pouring in from around the world. When production finally ceased in 1967, 1,657 DHC-2 Beavers had been built.

The Beaver was designed for flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Its short takeoff and landing capability made it ideal for areas normally only accessible by canoe or foot. Because it often flies to remote locations, often in cold climates, its oil reservoir filler is located in the cockpit and oil can be filled in flight. A series of upgrades to the basic design were incorporated into the design to further improve it. One major customer introduced the use of flat steps replacing the earlier tubes, a feature that is now almost universal.

Operational history

Despite the fact that production ceased in 1967, hundreds of Beavers are still flying—many of them heavily modified to adapt to changes in technology and needs. Kenmore Air of Kenmore, Washington provides Beaver and Otter airframes with "zero-hour" fatigue-life ratings, and owns dozens of supplemental type certificates (STCs) for aircraft modifications. These modifications are so well-known and desirable in the aviation community, rebuilt Beavers are often called "Kenmore Beavers" or listed as having "Kenmore mods" installed.cite web|url=http://www.kenmoreair.com/parts/beaverrebuildprogram/rebuild.html|title=Beaver Rebuild Program|work=Kenmore Air|accessdate=2007-04-21] A 1950s Beaver that originally sold for under US$50,000 can now go for up to US$500,000.

The original Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine of the Beaver is now out of production, so repair parts are getting harder to find. Some aircraft conversion stations have addressed this problem by replacing the piston engine with a turboprop engine such as the PT6. The added power and lighter installed weight, together with greater availability of kerosene fuel instead of high-octane aviation gasoline, make this a desirable modification.

Harrison Ford owns a DHC-2 Beaver ( [http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNumSQL.asp?NNumbertxt=28S N28S] ), and has called it his favourite among his entire fleet of private aircraft. The United States military continues to operate two DHC-2s 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 good climb rate. When fitted with a roller door that can be opened in flight, it can quickly ferry eight skydivers to 13,000 ft (3,950 m).

Recent developments

At one point in its production, plans to license build the type in New Zealand were proposed. 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, Canada, which manufactures replacement parts for most of the early de Havilland line. On 24 February 2006, Viking purchased the type certificates from Bombardier Aerospace for all the original de Havilland designs. [ [http://aiabc.com/artman/publish/printer_47.shtml Viking acquires DeHavilland type certificates] Press Release 24 February 2006.] The ownership of the certificates gives Viking the exclusive right to manufacture new Beavers.

In a news report on 4 April 2007, [ [http://www.flightglobal.com News report] ] Viking said it may restart production of the single engine DHC-3 Otter and possibly the DHC-2 Beaver following strong market demand for both aircraft.

In 1987, the Canadian "Engineering Centennial Board" named the DHC-2 one of the top ten Canadian engineering achievements of the 20th century. [Cooper, Russ. "Winged Workhorse." "Canadian Geographic" magazine, July/August 2007, p. 26.]

Variants

* Beaver I : Single-engined STOL utility transport aircraft.
** Beaver AL Mk 1 : STOL utility transport aircraft for the British Army.
** YL-20 : Test and evaluation aircraft for the US military.
** L-20A Beaver : STOL utility transport aircraft for the U.S. Army, later redesignated U-6A in 1962, 968 built.
** L-20B Beaver : Basically similar to the L-20A, but with minor equipment changes. Six were sold to the US Army. Later redesignated U-6B in 1962.
* Beaver II : One aircraft was fitted with an Alvis Leonides radial piston engine.
* Turbo-Beaver III : Powered by a 431-kW (578-ehp) Pratt & Whitney PT6A-6 or -20 turboprop engine.
* DHC-2/PZL-3S: After-market conversion by Airtech Canada in the 1980s, using current-production PZL-3S radial engines of 600 hp (450 kW)

Operators

Military operators

;ARG;AUS: Royal Australian Air Force;AUT;CAM;CAN: Royal Canadian Air Force;CHI;COL;CUB;DOM;FIN;FRA;GHA;GRE;HAI;IDN;flag|Iran|1925;KEN;LAO;NLD;NZL: Royal New Zealand Air Force;OMN;PER;PHI: Philippine Air Force;KOR;flag|South Vietnam;THA;TUR;UGA;UK: Army Air Corps;USA
*U.S. Army
*U.S. Air Force
*U.S. Navy;URY;YUG;ZAM

pecifications (DHC-2)

aerospecs
ref=Donald 1997, p. 328.
met or eng?=eng
genhide=
crew=1
capacity=6 passengers, 2,100 lb (953 kg) useful payload
length m=9.22
length ft=30
length in=3
span m=14.63
span ft=48
span in=0
height m=2.74
height ft=9
height in=0
wing area sqm=23.2
wing area sqft=250
empty weight kg=1,361
empty weight lb=3,000
gross weight kg=2,313
gross weight lb=5,100
eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Jr. radial engine
eng1 kw=336
eng1 hp=450
perfhide=
max speed kmh=255
max speed mph=158
cruise speed kmh=230
cruise speed mph=143
range km=732
range miles=455
endurance h=
endurance min=
ceiling m=4,586
ceiling ft=18,000
climb rate ms=5.2
climb rate ftmin=1,020

ee also

aircontent

has sequence=yes
has relations=yes
links=no
has lists=no
see also?=no
related=*de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter
similar aircraft=
*Fairchild F-11 Husky
*Gippsland GA8
*Helio Courier
*Max Holste M.H. 1521 Broussard
*Murphy Moose
*Noorduyn Norseman
*PAC Cresco
lists=
see also=

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Donald, David, ed. "The Encyclopedia of World Aircraft". Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.
* Hotson, Fred W. "The de Havilland Canada Story." Toronto: CANAV Books, 1983. ISBN 0-07-549483-3.
* Rossiter, Sean. "The Immortal Beaver: The World's Greatest Bush Plane". Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1999. ISBN 1-55054-724-0.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/7146/beaver.html A tribute to the De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver]
* [http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/collections/artifacts/aircraft/deHavillandCanadaDHC-2Beaver.shtml Canada Aviation Museum: de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver]
* [http://www.dhc-2.com/current_cover_page.htm de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver - Neil Aird]