Guideline Publications de Havilland (Canada) DHC-2 Beaver – Warpaint #139

[Mike]

de Havilland (Canada) DHC-2 Beaver – Warpaint #139

ISBN: 9781739219048

Guideline Publications

 

 

Following the end of WWII, the Canadian Subsidiary of de Havilland, handily differentiated by the word Canada in brackets, pivoted to the civilian market after sensing that military types and orders would see a huge slump as countries struggled to restore their civilian infrastructure after the devastation that the war caused worldwide.  They undertook an extensive market research operation in Canada, and because of the mountainous and remote landscape in parts of the country, pilots wanted a powerful passenger and cargo aircraft that could take off and land on short strips, had good visibility, and would be equally suited to wheels, floats or skis, depending on the needs of the operator.  The design team initially enlarged the wing to produce sufficient lift in combination with a variant of the internally produced Gipsy engine, but by chance they were offered an extremely good price on more powerful Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines that were war surplus from the US.  Rather than shrink the wing and keep the same level of STOL performance, they kept the larger aerofoils and mated it with the 450hp Wasp engine, which gave it an exceptional short-field operational capability, which would enhance the appeal to bush pilots. 

 

The initial sales effort didn’t result in the rush of new customers for the type that had been anticipated, but it slowly built up to a steady flow as word spread about the talents of this little aircraft.  Sales were further boosted when it won the contest for a new light utility aircraft for the US military, adding almost 1,000 airframes to the sales figures in one fell swoop, and ensuring that there would be large numbers of military surplus airframes and spares available in later years, providing they survived service in the Korean War.  In total, 1,600 airframes were built before production ceased, but there were many attempts to recommence over the years, as well as some interesting variants such as the turbo-prop DHC-2T, which was more powerful and could carry heavier loads.  Viking Air currently own the design rights to the Beaver, and they may eventually bring it back into production one day.  Meanwhile, Harbour Air have converted one of their extant Beaver airframes to electric (battery) power, and plan to convert their entire fleet eventually.  There’s a documentary with an segment about their conversion efforts somewhere if you’re interested, and I’ve watched it, but can’t remember the name of the show.  Sorry!

 

 

The Book

The book by author Adrian M Balch is in the usual Warpaint format of portrait A4(ish) with a soft card cover, utilising a perfect binding instead of the original pair of staples to accommodate the genuine total of fifty-two pages, plus content printed on the four sides of the glossy covers, including a two-page spread of plans in 1:72, penned by Sam Pearson.  The initial section details the birth of the type in detail, with some interesting titbits of information included, then the subsequent pages detail the different types and military operations, including those on floats and skis.  Many of the photos are in colour, doing justice to the colourful schemes from the many foreign operators both military and civilian, as well as the usual official sources and historical records that were kept by the developers, restorers, civilian operators, and manufacturers.

 

 

The pages include a lot of useful photos with informative captions of aircraft on the apron, on the field, in the air, during trials, and photos of the Turbo Beaver with its more pointed nose cowling.  There is also an aircraft that is in the process of being extracted from a snow bank after a less-than-successful landing.  The eight-page Profiles section shows a range of colours in which the type was painted, including some of the military and more colourful civilian schemes, including the Trans Arctic Expedition in the 50s, which has a little contention over the colour of its aircraft. 

 

 

 

My favourite variant is usually the slightly weird one, but the Turbo Beaver on floats is as weird as it gets in terms of the design, but there are plenty of unusual and interesting schemes that it wore.  Of the schemes that are shown in the profiles, the stars-and-bars does look quite interesting to me, as they’re quite dramatic and sharp-looking.

 

 

 

The In Detail section is an interesting look at the aircraft at close range that spans six pages, intermixing photos of the passenger/load compartment, cockpit and the exterior of different aircraft, some that are clearly older photos of machines that may or may not now exist or wear that particular scheme. 

 

 

There are kits in both 1:72 and 1:48, as well as some weird and wonderful scales, with a raft of decal sheets available, particularly in 1:72.  The 1:32 modeller however is left out, and some of the more unusual scales are probably hard to get these days, even if you didn’t mind them being an oddity in amongst your other kits in the display cabinet.  1:48 and 1:72 builders were to have been treated to a new tooling from our friends at Dora Wings last year, but I suspect that it has been delayed due to the circumstances in Ukraine.  Hopefully I’m sure they’ll get round to it in due course, and the old 1:48 HobbyCraft and 1:72 Airfix kits can be put out to grass.

 

 

Conclusion

The Warpaint series always gets a thumbs-up due to their consistent layout and quality.  This is an excellent book that will see plenty of use by anyone interest in, or in building this little aircraft that has done so much over its long career and worn some highly interesting and colourful schemes that could be all the excuse you need to build more than one.

 

Note:  You can buy either the traditional physical version of the book by following the link below, or the digital version if you’re more modern and forward thinking, or have limited storage space.  Digital reference is starting to grow on me as my shelves fill up.

 

Highly recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of