De Havilland Canada DHC - 2 Beaver 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 line shut down . Due to its success , the Royal Canadian Mint commemorated the Beaver on a special edition Canadian quarter 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 float s . 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 . The doors were also made wide enough to allow for a 45 Imperial gallon drum to be rolled up into the aircraft . On September 17 , 1946 , de Havilland officially put together a design team consisting of Fred Buller , Dick Hiscocks , Jim Houston and W . Jakimiuk , led 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 - owned 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 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 aircraft 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 August 16 , 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 with the outbreak of the Korean War , led to orders for hundreds of aircraft . Soon orders increased 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 . In 1987 , the Canadian " Engineering Centennial Board " named the DHC - 2 one of the top ten Canadian engineering achievements of the 20th century . Recent developments . At one point in its production , plans to license and build the type in New Zealand were proposed . 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 certificate s from Bombardier Aerospace for all the original de Havilland designs . The ownership of the certificates gives Viking the exclusive right to manufacture new Beavers . Viking now sells an improved Beaver called the DHC - 2T Turbo Beaver , with a maximum gross takeoff weight increased to . The Turbo Beaver can carry of freight . 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 certificate s ( 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 . The original Wasp Jr radial engine of the Beaver is long 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 , but at a high financial cost . The Beaver was deployed by the British Army Air Corps during the Troubles at least until 1979 for photo - reconnaissance missions . One of them was hit seven times by machine gun fire in South County Armagh , near the border with the Republic of Ireland in November 1979 , while taking valuable photos of an IRA checkpoint . The border crossing where the action took place was known by the British Army as " Beaver Junction " since then . Operators of significant numbers of piston - Beavers in early 2008 include Air Saguenay and Harbour Air in Canada and Kenmore Air in the USA . Harrison Ford owns a DHC - 2 Beaver 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 . Stolairus Aviation of Kelowna , British Columbia has developed several modifications for the DHC - 2 including a STOL Kit which modifies the wing with a contoured leading edge , flap - gap seals , wing fences and drooped wingtips for increased performance . Stolairus has also developed a Wing Angle Kit which changes the incidence of the wing . Advanced Wing Technologies of Vancouver , British Columbia has developed and certified a new wing for the DHC - 2 . The FAA Supplemental Type Certificate also raises the aircraft ' s gross weight to 6000 lbs . So far , at least two Beavers have been so modified . Operators . Civil . The DHC - 2 is popular with air charter companies , police forces and small air taxi operators as well as private individuals and companies . Both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Finnish Border Guard operate the aircraft . Accidents and incidents . There have been 183 incidents involving the DHC - 2 and 404 deaths .