Watching airplanes fly is great, though we won’t try to make it sound like it’s better than flying them. Regardless, this video, shared by Jesse Kvale, shows the spectacular nature of flying that riding in one of the big cruise ships shown behind could NEVER rival.
The Beaver is arguably the most Alaskan of airplanes. Built by De Havilland of Canada from 1947 until 1967, the radial-engine powered single is rugged, beefy and big, giving it the perfect combination of qualities for doing the kind of flying that the 49th State demands. De Havilland built more than 1,600 Beavers, and a lot of them are still flying, because another great thing about Beavers is, you can rebuild them. The plane in the video is powered, it sounds like, by the Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Jr. radial engine that from the factory put out 450 horses. There are tons of conversions that Beaver operators have done over the years. Indeed, many have been converted to turbine power by swapping out the R-985 for a Pratt & Whitney PT-6 of a few different varieties, all of which are around a third again more powerful than the radial.
And as far as the Beaver flying into the figurative sunset is concerned, not to worry. For the past 15 years Viking Air has owned the type certificate, and it soldiers on producing parts for the type while occasionally floating the idea of building new Beavers again at some point. So, the Beaver will be around for a long time to come, a fact that will make bush pilots everywhere glad.
