Bush Pilot's Ideal

On a rainswept runway at Toronto's Downsview Airport, a stubby little blue-grey plane took off after a 500-ft. run and nosed upward into a steep climb. It turned back over the field at 170 m.p.h., did tight circles and vertical banks. Then the pilot cut his speed to a plodding 55 m.p.h. and drifted over, waggling his wings to show his control of the aircraft even on the brink of a stall. At the landing, the brakes stopped the plane within 500 feet.

This air show, watched by U.S. Air Force procurement officers, was a dash of superfluous salesmanship by De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd. to mark the first deliveries on a big order of Beavers for the U.S. Air Force. U.S. experts were sold on the Beaver early this year when they tested the plane. They ordered 109 to start, now have plans to buy up to 750 of the rugged, $29,000 planes for battlefield air-evacuation and courier duty.

Easy to fly on wheels, floats or skis, with a 1,875-lb. work load and a maximum 630-mile cruising range, the Beaver is an ideal frontier plane. Canadian bush airlines clamored for them as soon as the first one came off the assembly line in 1947. De Havilland sold Beavers in Finland, Indonesia, Colombia, Malaya, Rhodesia and Chile. Now better than half the plant's entire output (currently 12 planes a month) will be delivered to the U.S. Army and Air Force.

U.S. arms makers were less punctual in their deliveries to Canada. The Canadian army announced last week that despite the long-range program to standardize Canadian and U.S. arms, it will equip its 27th Brigade armored squadron in Germany with British-made Centurion tanks. Reason: the U.S. cannot promise delivery on a Canadian order placed last spring for 60 of the U.S. Army's M-47 medium tanks. The British agreed to supply 60 Centurions, standard medium tank of the Royal Armored Corps, in the near future.

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