De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver

This page is my personal tribute to a great small aircraft, the De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. On this page you can find general information about the Beaver, pictures of various types and links to other sites of interest for the Beaver Enthusiast.

Bart & Beaver

My interest in the Beaver started in the early eighties. I was a serious military aircraft spotter at Leeuwarden, a major air force base in the Netherlands. Based there were, among other types, 4 Alouette III helicopters for SAR (Search and Rescue) and base flight duties. When I started to do some research into the SAR/baseflight at Leeuwarden I came across one of the predecessors of the Alouette III, the Beaver. Together with Lieuwe Miedema I put up a complete production list of the Beaver. I still collect all kinds of stuff connected in any way with the Beaver, like pictures, badges, manuals, artwork etc.

General information

	Engine	Pratt & Whitney R-985 AN-6B or AN-14B Wasp Jr.
	Dimensions
	Wing span	14.6 m
	Length	9.2 m
	Wing area	23.2 sq m
	Height	2.7 m (wheels)
		2.9 m (skis)

Weights
On wheels
Basic weight	1360 kg
Disposable load	953 kg
Gross weight	2313 kg
On Skis
Basic Weight	1465 kg
Disposable load	847 kg
Gross weight	2313 kg
Performance
Maximum speed	257 km/h
Cruise speed	209 km/h
Rate of climb (initial)	311 m/mn
Ceiling	5486 m

The first Beaver which ever flew was prototype CF-FHB-X on 16-aug-1947.

Pictures

The British Royal Army was a major Beaver user in Europe. This picture shows XV270 & XP771. XP771 is in the "new" more toned down colourscheme, with black serial number.

Aaargh! Is this a Beaver? I'm afraid so! All things must change they say, and so came the "Turbo-Beaver". Differs from a real Beaver on the nose (turbo engine) and the tail. Definitely not my favourite! This one is Royal Canadian Mounted Police's C-FCJB.

A colourfull Beaver in the sun, what more can one wish? CF-CAT taken at Springbank on august 8 1983. This is the 1513th Beaver built, so it's Construction Number (C/N) is 1583.

Royal Netherlands Air Force Beaver S-9, taken at a Dutch airshow in the eighties. The aircraft shows the GpLV badge on the tail (Groep Lichte Vliegtuigen, Light Aircraft Group), the unit to which the Dutch Beaver's belonged. S-9 wasn't airworthy when this picture was taken, but it's fully operational today, as support aircraft for the Dutch Spritfire Flight. Great to have a flying Beaver in Holland again!

Hahaha! Have you ever heard of these guys? The famous U.S.A.F. demonstration team the "Thunderbeavers"! A friend of mine from high school painted this one for me, it's still one of my favourite Beaver items.

Royal Australian Air Force's A95-205 docking in a harbour somewhere. Many Beaver's are equipped with floats.

Here's another Australian one, A95-202, this one not equipped with floats but with skis.

Oops, didn't have the time to look this one up, serial number is 216, but where is it from? Somewhere in Asia I supect.

Links

National Aviation Museum Canada, Beaver (they own the prototype)
Another page with some technical information
Canadian Airlines, offers sightseeing flights with the Beaver
De Havilland Canada Beaver C-FEYN, some very nice pictures of this Beaver
Make a flight with a Beaver on floats over Hamburg, Germany!
Bart Beaver's ACARS pages

Contact me!

If you want to contact me please feel free to do so! I can be reached at dacars@iname.com . Give me shout when you find other interesting Beaver sites, I'll be glad to add them to my list of links. I was unable to get information on the makers of the above pictures, but if you do recognize one as yours, please tell me!

The technical data above was taken from "The Immortal Beaver" © by Sean Rossiter.
Space for this page kindly provided by Geocities.