Otter and Twin Otter

A.A. den Otter is a professor of history at Memorial University of
Newfoundland and the author of The Philosophy of Railways.

This fascinating and generously illustrated book chronicles the history
of de Havilland Canada’s Otter and Twin Otter. The Otter was an
original design but owed much to the company’s experience with its
successful Beaver and King Beaver. Rossiter skilfully outlines the many
problems de Havilland engineers faced in designing such a plane.
Nevertheless, they were successful and on December 12, 1951, the Otter
flew for the first time.

The Otter’s triumph was due not only to innovative engineering but
also to brazen marketing. When de Havilland staff learned that the RCAF
brass was planning a salmon fishing expedition in remote Labrador, they
flew an Otter prototype to Goose Bay. While the chartered Norseman could
not get airborne because of calm and hot conditions, the Otter had no
problem; moreover, it was able to land the party right at the fishing
lodge rather than a mile and half away. This success resulted in the
first of many sales to the armed forces and many more to those of the
United States. Equally impressive was test pilot George Neal’s
demonstration with Max Ward as passenger. Starting, it seemed,
impossibly close to it hanger, Neal raced toward it and at the last
moment hopped the plane into the air. Although the $100,000 price tag
discouraged Ward, he knew that the 8- to 14-passenger payload made the
Otter more valuable than any other bushplane. Ward introduced the Otter
to the North and revolutionized travel there.

In April 1963, de Havilland decided to improve the Otter by making it a
twin turboprop and giving it a tricycle undercarriage for better
crosswind stability. Subsequent to its first flight in May 1965, the
Twin Otter quickly found its niche in short-haul intercity travel.