AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 143 / 240

Plate 143 of 240 · Early jet age · Army liaison & utility aircraft

de Havilland Canada Beaver

Beaver AL.1, painted as XP821, c/n 1484, delivered to the Army Air Corps in August 1961, flown in Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore, lent with an Army pilot to the British Embassy in Vientiane, Laos, from 1970 to 1975, and handed to the Army’s museum at Middle Wallop in October 1985: de Havilland Canada’s DHC-2 bush aircraft, a strut-braced high-wing monoplane with a Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial, a two-blade propeller, a deep slab-sided cabin and a fixed tailwheel undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels with its flaps lowered as displayed at the Army Flying Museum, in the neutral scheme it wore in Laos: gloss white overall over a light grey lower fuselage, grey spinner and wheel-leg fairings, a black propeller with red and white tip bands, Type D roundels with black ‘ARMY’ and ‘XP821’ on the rear fuselage, ‘MCO’ over a red, white and blue fin flash, a Union flag on the starboard side of the fin and ‘BRITISH EMBASSY’ with its Lao equivalent on the rear cabin doors (shape from the Wikimedia Commons DHC-2 three-view, checked against a levelled side-on photograph of a Beaver on its wheels, with the paint and markings following photographs of XP821 at Middle Wallop, 2008–2018).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as XP821, c/n 1484, delivered to the Army Air Corps in August 1961, flown in Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore, lent with an Army pilot to the British Embassy in Vientiane, Laos, from 1970 to 1975, and handed to the Army’s museum at Middle Wallop in October 1985: de Havilland Canada’s DHC-2 bush aircraft, a strut-braced high-wing monoplane with a Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior radial, a two-blade propeller, a deep slab-sided cabin and a fixed tailwheel undercarriage, shown standing on its wheels with its flaps lowered as displayed at the Army Flying Museum, in the neutral scheme it wore in Laos: gloss white overall over a light grey lower fuselage, grey spinner and wheel-leg fairings, a black propeller with red and white tip bands, Type D roundels with black ‘ARMY’ and ‘XP821’ on the rear fuselage, ‘MCO’ over a red, white and blue fin flash, a Union flag on the starboard side of the fin and ‘BRITISH EMBASSY’ with its Lao equivalent on the rear cabin doors (shape from the Wikimedia Commons DHC-2 three-view, checked against a levelled side-on photograph of a Beaver on its wheels, with the paint and markings following photographs of XP821 at Middle Wallop, 2008–2018). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (966 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (AL.1, U-6A); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Beaver AL.1 modelled here.

History

The Beaver AL.1

De Havilland’s Canadian company designed the DHC-2 Beaver after asking bush pilots what they wanted: an aircraft that could carry a useful load out of a short strip, a lake or a frozen river, and be kept going far from any workshop. The answer was a rugged all-metal high-winged monoplane with a big radial engine, a deep square cabin with doors on both sides wide enough for a 45-gallon drum, and a strut-braced wing with large flaps. Russell Bannock flew the prototype at Downsview, Toronto, on 16 August 1947, and it could be fitted with wheels, floats or skis.

The Beaver’s big break came from the United States, which ordered it in 1951 for the Army and Air Force as the L-20, later renamed the U-6A. Nearly a thousand were bought for the American services, and they flew in Korea and in Vietnam. The British Army followed in 1960, choosing the Beaver for the new Army Air Corps as a liaison and light transport aircraft able to fly from rough strips, and some 46 Beaver AL.1s were delivered in 1960 and 1961.

Army Beavers carried troops, stores, casualties and commanders in Aden, Borneo and Malaysia, and later flew surveillance and photographic sorties over Northern Ireland, where the last of them served until 1989. De Havilland Canada built 1,657 Beavers before production ended in the 1960s, and hundreds still fly with bush and floatplane operators in Canada and Alaska.

This airframe

AL.1 XP821 (MCO)

XP821The airframe modelled

XP821 was delivered to the Army Air Corps in August 1961 and served with 4 Wing and later 130 Flight, Royal Corps of Transport, in Malaysia, Borneo and Singapore; in January 1966 it turned over on landing at Tawau, when a passenger’s feet were on the toe brakes. In May 1970 it was lent, with an Army pilot, to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the British Embassy in Vientiane, and repainted white and grey to mark its neutrality in the war in Laos. Flying up the Mekong it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, which passed through the port wing and just missed a fuel line. It left Laos in August 1975 and went to the Army’s museum at Middle Wallop in October 1985, still in its Laos colours, in which the model shows it: white over light grey, with “ARMY” and “XP821” either side of the roundel, “MCO” over the fin flash and “BRITISH EMBASSY” on the cabin doors.

See it at Army Flying Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Beaver AL.1 in 3 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 240 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.