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 extremes
of the Canadian north.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. Over 1,600 Beavers were produced.
