| You can look around the Beaver panoramas by
clicking on the picture, and dragging the mouse left or right. To get in and out of
the aircraft, click on the doorway. You can also zoom in by pressing "shift" and
zoom out by pressing "control". If you can not see the picture, make sure
you have downloaded and installed the Live Picture Viewer available by clicking on the
icon below:
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Before the design of the DHC-1 Chipmunk began, de Havilland Canada designers had been throwing around ideas for a new bush-plane, but put them aside before the end of World War II to build the Chipmunk. After the war, the bush plane again became their priority.
After conducting a mass "consumer survey" de Havilland Canada set out to build the ultimate all-metal Canadian-designed Bush craft. Tailored to meet the needs of bush pilots based on their specific requests, the company succeeded in building one of the most popular bush planes ever.
Built in 1946 and designed to take-off and land on rough terrain, the Beaver could be fit with skis, floats, or plain old wheels! After the flight of the prototype plane in 1947, 13 countries bought Beavers for military service -although the Canadian military was not one. The Beaver was nicknamed the "General's Jeep" as it was used to fly Generals in and out of hard to reach military areas.
In 1980, de Havilland Canada donated the prototype DHC-2 to the National Aviation Museum for display, although visitors can arrange a flight in a "working" Beaver.
Although production of the Beaver ended years ago, pilots will still pay a small-fortune to own and operate one of the thirty-year-old planes.
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