Book Review of
De Havilland Canada Beaver to Dash 8
Author: Christopher Buckley
Key Books
ISBN: 978-1-80282-245-8
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $35.95
ISBN: 978-1-80282-245-8
By Ray Mehlberger
Copyright: 2022
MSRP: $35.95
Whether in the snow, desert, jungle, on the water or even in just any regular airport, the De Havilland Canada’s legendary transport aircraft have lived incredible lives. No other aircraft manufacturer can claim to have seen its products fulfilling so many roles in so many wild and wonderful places.
The iconic, go-anywhere Beaver may appear to have little in common with the muscular Buffalo or the sophisticated Dash 8, but they will share the rugged fit-for purpose design, engineering excellence and longevity that have embraced the entire product line. Many of the Beavers and Otters flying commercially today are well over 60 years old.
This book provides a select history of these great aircraft, and recounts what many of them have been up to around the world – from London City Airport to forest clearings in Vanuatu, from glaciers in the Alaska Range, to “extreme” airports in the Caribbean, these aircraft have been everywhere. Illustrated with over 227 color photos, most of which have never been published before, this book is packed with stories, anecdotes, facts and figures, showcasing the De Havilland Canada and its remarkable aircraft.
THE BOOK:
Key Books is based in the UK.
The book is hardcover, with a paper jacket that has tabs that hold it to the book. It holds 164 pages in 6 ½” x 9 ½” page format. Four pages are blank.
The cover art shows a color photo of the first delivered to the U.S. Army in 1958, Rust Flying Services' magnificent Beaver N68083 (1254), kicking up some spray on Lake Hood, Alaska, in July 2015.
Unfortunately, this aircraft ran into trouble exactly four years later in Tutka Bay, near Homer, when the float-assembly partially separated during the take-off in rough seas. The Beaver flipped over and was severely damaged. As we will see in this book, many De Havilland Canada aircraft have had to cope with extreme operating conditions. The aircraft is overall red with two white stripes down the length of the sides of the fuselage. White pontoons with shite struts and black noses and bare metal bottoms. The prop blades each have 2 white bands around their tips.
The back cover shows a color photo of the legendary Twin-Otter, that is perfectly at home on land and water, and sometimes a combination of the two, shown on a runway. Loganair of Scotland does not fly Twin-Otters on floats, but is well used to dealing with the large tide-pools on the beach at Barra, in the outer Hebrides. As of early 2022, Loganair had been flying Twin-Otters to Barra for 45 years. G-HIAL (917) is a relatively new Series 400 that was delivered to Viking Air to Scotland’s Highlands and Islands Airports in May 2015. It is seen here splashing its way to Barra’s modest terminal in September 2021. It has a dark-blue fuselage with a white band down the length of the fuselage and a large white X on the rudder.
There are 8 chapters and the Epilogue in the book:
Chapter 1 – The DHC-2 Beaver, showing 39 color photos of them.
Chapter 2 -- The DHC-3 Otter, showing 20 color photos of them.
Chapter 3 – The DHC-4 Caribou, showing 11 color photos of them.
Chapter 4 – The DHC-5 Buffalo, showing 7 color photos of them.
Chapter 5 – The DHC-6 Twin-Otter, showing 66 color photos of them.
Chapter 6 – The DHC-7 Dash 7, showing 18 color photos of them.
Chapter 7 – The DHC-8 Dash-100, -200 and – 300, showing 45 color photos of them.
Chapter 8 – The DHC-8 Dash 8-400, showing 24 of them.
The epilogue is at the end of the book (1 page long).
The last page shows 6 color cover arts of other Key Books:
“Soviet Era Airliners”, “Water Bombers”, “De Havilland Comet”, “Airliners of the 1990’s”, “Airliners of the 2000s” and “Boeing 707”.
Below these cover arts Key Publishing’s web address is provided and an invitation to join their VIP Book Club and receive 2 free books and find out about any forthcoming new books from them.
This is a neat book about De Havilland Canada brand aircrafts. It will be of interest to modelers planning on building one of the aircraft featured in the book and aviation historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Key Books. All Key titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
The iconic, go-anywhere Beaver may appear to have little in common with the muscular Buffalo or the sophisticated Dash 8, but they will share the rugged fit-for purpose design, engineering excellence and longevity that have embraced the entire product line. Many of the Beavers and Otters flying commercially today are well over 60 years old.
This book provides a select history of these great aircraft, and recounts what many of them have been up to around the world – from London City Airport to forest clearings in Vanuatu, from glaciers in the Alaska Range, to “extreme” airports in the Caribbean, these aircraft have been everywhere. Illustrated with over 227 color photos, most of which have never been published before, this book is packed with stories, anecdotes, facts and figures, showcasing the De Havilland Canada and its remarkable aircraft.
THE BOOK:
Key Books is based in the UK.
The book is hardcover, with a paper jacket that has tabs that hold it to the book. It holds 164 pages in 6 ½” x 9 ½” page format. Four pages are blank.
The cover art shows a color photo of the first delivered to the U.S. Army in 1958, Rust Flying Services' magnificent Beaver N68083 (1254), kicking up some spray on Lake Hood, Alaska, in July 2015.
Unfortunately, this aircraft ran into trouble exactly four years later in Tutka Bay, near Homer, when the float-assembly partially separated during the take-off in rough seas. The Beaver flipped over and was severely damaged. As we will see in this book, many De Havilland Canada aircraft have had to cope with extreme operating conditions. The aircraft is overall red with two white stripes down the length of the sides of the fuselage. White pontoons with shite struts and black noses and bare metal bottoms. The prop blades each have 2 white bands around their tips.
The back cover shows a color photo of the legendary Twin-Otter, that is perfectly at home on land and water, and sometimes a combination of the two, shown on a runway. Loganair of Scotland does not fly Twin-Otters on floats, but is well used to dealing with the large tide-pools on the beach at Barra, in the outer Hebrides. As of early 2022, Loganair had been flying Twin-Otters to Barra for 45 years. G-HIAL (917) is a relatively new Series 400 that was delivered to Viking Air to Scotland’s Highlands and Islands Airports in May 2015. It is seen here splashing its way to Barra’s modest terminal in September 2021. It has a dark-blue fuselage with a white band down the length of the fuselage and a large white X on the rudder.
There are 8 chapters and the Epilogue in the book:
Chapter 1 – The DHC-2 Beaver, showing 39 color photos of them.
Chapter 2 -- The DHC-3 Otter, showing 20 color photos of them.
Chapter 3 – The DHC-4 Caribou, showing 11 color photos of them.
Chapter 4 – The DHC-5 Buffalo, showing 7 color photos of them.
Chapter 5 – The DHC-6 Twin-Otter, showing 66 color photos of them.
Chapter 6 – The DHC-7 Dash 7, showing 18 color photos of them.
Chapter 7 – The DHC-8 Dash-100, -200 and – 300, showing 45 color photos of them.
Chapter 8 – The DHC-8 Dash 8-400, showing 24 of them.
The epilogue is at the end of the book (1 page long).
The last page shows 6 color cover arts of other Key Books:
“Soviet Era Airliners”, “Water Bombers”, “De Havilland Comet”, “Airliners of the 1990’s”, “Airliners of the 2000s” and “Boeing 707”.
Below these cover arts Key Publishing’s web address is provided and an invitation to join their VIP Book Club and receive 2 free books and find out about any forthcoming new books from them.
This is a neat book about De Havilland Canada brand aircrafts. It will be of interest to modelers planning on building one of the aircraft featured in the book and aviation historians alike.
I sincerely wish to thank Casemate Publishers, the N. American distributor of Key Books. All Key titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
Highly recommended.