Yukon Aircraft

Do you have an interest in early Yukon helicopters?… Come and see the museum´s Hiller 360, the first helicopter in the Yukon.

The Bellanca Aircrusier seemingly drips style. It is large in charge and the struts holding up its wings could almost be mistaken for some form of a strange biplane.

The airplane´s simple controls and lack of complex components made the Cessna 180 an approachable and consistent aircraft.

Flown with success during the war by both the British and United States Airforces respectively, the large bomber would be tasked with an equally dangerous and daunting task after the war.

Visualize a bushplane… chances are it’s a Beaver.

Their DHC-2 Beaver is synonymous with bush flying here in the Yukon, but the Beaver has a bigger brother who has been adapted into the modern age: the DHC-3 Otter.

What would a former combat aircraft have to provide the Yukon? Coincidentally the same powerful engines and bomb bay were put to excellent use in the wildfire suppression role.

The DC-3 began its immensely long service career in 1936. Outliving a great number of pre-war aircraft, like the Ford Tri-Motor for example. Renamed during World War 2 as the C-4, this aircraft proved to be a reliable workhorse.

By the time the four Fairchilds had even made it to the Yukon, they were already antiques, yet they were the best machines available.

The Super Universal was well handling, with a large payload, and was tough enough to survive the primitive and scratched out runways in the North.

In the early 1930s, the Ford Trimotor was a regular sight in the pioneering Yukon Aviation stables. Developed by the Ford Motor Company in 1925.

The earliest helicopters in the territory were Hiller 360s operating under Kenting Aviation in part of Topographical Survey of Canada, in the northern part of Yukon.

The Queen of the Yukon was the first to deliver mail by air to Dawson City; a task it performed by dropping the mail from the sky as it was determined that the river ice was not significantly thick enough to land on.