The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is one of the most famous bush planes in the world. After World War II, de Havilland Canada was looking to produce a plane suited to operations in the extremes of the Canadian north.

The Beaver has become a symbol of the Canadian north, and has since found use as a bush plane all over the world; the international ICAO designation for flight plans is DHC2. The type is used for aerial application; (crop dusting and aerial topdressing), and has been widely used by armed forces as a utility aircraft; the U.S. Army Air Corps purchased several hundred. Nine DHC-2s are still in service with the US Air Force Auxiliary (Civil Air Patrol) for search and rescue. A Royal New Zealand Air Force Beaver supported Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition to the South Pole. Over 1,600 Beavers were produced.

Due to this success, the Royal Canadian Mint commemorated the Beaver on a special edition Canadian quarter in November 1999.

The Dornier Do 18 was a development of the Dornier Do 15 "Wal" flying-boat. It was developed for Deutsche Lufthansa and they introduced it in 1935. Its records included a non-stop 5,214 mile (8,391 km) flight from Start Point, Devon to Caravelas in Brazil.

The Do 18 retained the basic metal hull and stabilizing sponsons that had characterized the Do 15, but was aerodynamically more efficient. Powered by two 540 hp (403 kW) Junkers Jumo 5 diesel engines, the Do 18a prototype first flew on 15 March 1935 and was followed by four of the Do 18E variant with improved 600 hp (447 kW) Junkers Jumo 205C engines. Lufthansa's sixth aircraft was the only Do 18F that first took to the skies on 11 June 1937 and established the England to Brazil endurance record between 27 to 29 March 1938 in aviation. It was later designated the Do 18L when modified by the use of the more powerful 880 hp (656 kW) BMW 132N engines; it made its first flight with this engine on 21 November 1939.

The RC-3 Seabee was the brainchild of Percival Hopkins "Spence" Spencer, an early aviation pioneer who built his first hang glider in April 1911, just two weeks after his 17th birthday, using plans he found in a "Popular Mechanics" magazine. On May 15th 1914 "Spence" would make his first powered flight in a Curtiss Type Flying Boat. In 1937 he would team up with Sikorsky engineer Vincent A. Larsen to design their first, and only, amphibious aircraft, the Spencer-Larsen SL-12C. Development of the plane progressed slowly, and in September 1940 Spencer left the partnership to found his own company. His aircraft would be called the Spencer S-12 Air Car Amphibian. Construction of the S-12 began on March 1st 1941 and the small, two seat S-12 (NX29098) made its first flight on August 8th 1941. The S-12 was a fabric covered amphibian with a unique box like forward cabin, a high wing with a pusher style two bladed propeller, and a long, slender tail boom.

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero ("A" for fighter, 6th model, "M" for Mitsubishi) was a lightweight, carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. Its history mirrored the fortunes of Imperial Japan in World War II. At the time it was introduced, the Mitsubishi A6M was the best carrier-based fighter plane in the world and was greatly feared by Allied pilots. By 1942, thanks to the evolution of new tactics and techniques, allied pilots were able to engage the Zero on more equal terms. By 1943, American and British manufacturers were producing fighters with greater firepower, armor, and speed and approaching the Zero's maneuverability. By 1944, the Mitsubishi A6M was outdated but remained in production. In shifting priorities during the final years of the War in the Pacific, the Zero was utilized in kamikaze operations.

A combination of excellent maneuverability and very long range made it one of the finest fighters of its era. In early combat operations, the Zero gained a legendary reputation, outclassing its contemporaries. Later, design weaknesses and the increasing scarcity of more powerful aircraft engines meant that the Zero became less effective against newer fighters.

The Noorduyn Norseman is a Canadian single-engine bush plane designed to operate from unimproved surfaces. Norseman aircraft are known to have been registered and/or operated in 68 countries throughout the world and also have been based and flown on the Arctic and Antarctic continents.

With the experience of working on many ground-breaking designs at Fokker, Bellanca and Pitcairn-Cierva, Noorduyn decided to create his own design in 1934, the Noorduyn Norseman. Along with colleague, Walter Clayton, Noorduyn created his original company, Noorduyn Aircraft Limited in early 1933 at Montreal while a successor company bearing the name, Noorduyn Aviation, was established in 1935.

The S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers, first flown on 16 October 1937 by Shorts' Chief Test Pilot, John Lankester Parker. Based in part upon the S.23 Empire flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways, the S.25 was extensively re-engineered for military service. As one of the most powerful and widely used flying boats throughout the Second World War, it terrorized the German U-boat fleet. It took its name from the town of Sunderland in northeast England.

In 1934, the British Postmaster General declared that all first-class Royal Mail sent overseas was to travel by air, effectively establishing a subsidy for the development of intercontinental air transportation in a fashion similar to the U.S. domestic program a decade earlier. In response, Imperial Airways announced a competition between aircraft manufacturers to design and produce 28 flying boats, each weighing 18 tons (18.2 tonnes) and having a range of 700 miles (1,130 km) with a capacity for 24 passengers.

The de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single engine, high wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It was conceived to be capable of performing the same roles as the earlier and highly successful Beaver, but was overall a larger plane.

Although the Otter found ready acceptance in bush airlines, as in a similar scenario to the DHC-2 Beaver, the US Army soon became the largest operator of the aircraft (184 delivered with the designation U-1A Otter). Other military users included Australia, Canada and India but the primary role of the aircraft as a rugged bush plane continues to this day.

The Otter is also a popular airplane among the general aviation (non-military) parachuting community and can be found in many dropzones throughout the world.

The Albatross was designed to be able to land at sea in open ocean situations in order to effect the rescue of downed pilots. Its deep-V cross-section and substantial length helped make it possible for it to land in wavy conditions.

Since it weighs over 12,500 pounds, pilots must have a type rating in order to act as pilot or co-pilot on board the Albatross. There is a yearly Albatross fly-in at Boulder City, Nevada, where Albatross pilots can renew their type ratings.

The Martin PBM Mariner was a United States Navy patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. 1,285 were built, with the first example flying on February 18 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.

The aircraft was fitted with five gun turrets and bomb bays that were in the engine nacelles. The gull wing was of cantilever design, and featured clean aerodynamics with an unbraced twin tail. The PBM-1 was equipped with retractable wing landing floats that were hinged inboard, while the PBM-3 had fixed floats. Also the fuselage of the PBM-3 was three feet longer than the PBM-1.

The British Royal Air Force acquired 32 Mariners. They were not used operationally and some were returned to the United States Navy and twelve were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force for transporting troops and cargo.

The Dutch Navy acquired seventeen PBM-5a Mariners at the end of 1955 for service in former Dutch New Guinea. The PBM-5a is an amphibian plane with retractable landing gear. The engines are 2100 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800-34. After several incidents the Dutch scrapped the aircraft in January 1960.

General characteristics

• Crew: Seven

• Length: 77 ft 2 in (23.50 m)

• Wingspan: 118 ft 0 in (36 m)

• Height: 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m)

• Wing area: 1,408 ft² (131 m²)

• Empty weight: 33,175 lb (15,048 kg)

• Loaded weight: 56,000 lb (25,425 kg)

• Powerplant: 2× Wright R-2600-12 14-cylinder radial engines, 1,700 hp (1,300 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 178 knots (205 mph, 330 km/h)

• Range: 2,600 nm (3,000 mi, 4,800 km)

• Service ceiling 19,800 ft (6,040 m)

• Rate of climb: 800 ft/min (4.1 m/s)

• Wing loading: lb/ft² (kg/m²)

• Power/mass: hp/lb (W/kg)

Armament

• 4 × .50 in machine guns (one each in: nose and dorsal turrets, blisters amidships )

• 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) of bombs or depth charges or 2 × Mark 13 torpedoes