Traveling around Southeast Alaska can be downright difficult. Many small communities have no commercial airports, road access, and are not part of the Alaska Marine Highway (the statewide ferry system).  The only way to access these communities is by personal vessel or chartered floatplane. A floatplane is a type of seaplane that has pontoons, or floats, attached to the fuselage which allows them to land and take off from the water. Flown by experienced bush pilots, floatplanes supply remote areas with supplies and visitors year round.

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The De Havilland Beaver

The de Havilland Beaver was created to operate in the extreme conditions of North. Built by de Havilland of Canada after extensive consultation with Canadian bush pilots, it is still one of the most famous and reliable floatplanes worldwide. Today it is often known as the workhorse of Alaska. Although there were only 1,600 Beavers produced from 1947 to 1967, hundreds of these are still flown in as many as 60 countries around the world.  The Beaver is the Alaskan bush pilot’s favored floatplane for access to remote and rugged areas throughout the state.