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| De Havilland L-20A DHU-6 Beaver |
The Beaver is known these days for being a workhorse of the Alaskan bush, but the U.S. Air Force helped put them on the map:
The United States Army purchased several hundred aircraft; nine DHC-2s are still in service with the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary (Civil Air Patrol) for search and rescue. - Wikipedia
This particular airplane is kind of special:
N682AF was built in 1954 and is owned by Bill Anders’ Apogee Flight. It was restored by Col Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Commander. It is regularly displayed at shows with museum aircraft and was winner of the 2001 EAA Arlington “Best L Bird” award. Though Beavers are usually seen on floats, this wheeled Beaver is painted in USAF rescue colors like the Beaver Bill Anders flew occasionally in Iceland. - Heritage Flight Museum
Huh, when you are finished with your career of piloting moon rockets you can retire to a quiet life of restoring antique aircraft.
A point of pride:
ReplyDeleteThe manufacturer of this plane is De Havilland Canada, a Canadian company. It's a long story:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada
We Canadians would call it simply the "Dash 2", or a much later aircraft, the "Dash 8":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_Dash_8
Here's a picture:
https://www.alamy.com/air-canada-express-jazz-aviation-bombardier-dash-8-c-gtat-regional-image65057384.html
Cool stuff, eh!