De Havilland Canada

DHC-4 Caribou

The DHC-4 Caribou was designed to provide military operators with a twin-engine STOL cargo transport aircraft with greater capacity than the Otter. The type also offered a rear loading capability.

 

The prototype DHC-4 Caribou (CF-KTK-X) was flown for the first time on 30th July 1958.

 

Like the Otter, it is a rugged short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft which is ideally suited for operations from unprepared airfields. It has a capacity of up to 32 troops or some 8,000 lb payload.

 

Power is provided by two 1,450hp Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines. 307 were built, finding a ready market with a number of military users.

 

Significant users included the US Army / USAF (159 CV-2 / C-7), Australia (31 aircraft serving until 2009), Spain (35 aircraft), India (20 + 4 ex-Ghana); Canada (9); Ghana (8); Kenya (6). A smaller number of aircraft were delivered for commercial operations world-wide. In 1966, the US Army relinquished its Caribou fleet to the US Air Force in exchange for the removal of controls on its use of rotary wing aircraft (helicopters).

 

Some DHC-4 Caribou aircraft were captured by the North Vietnamese and stayed in service with that country well into the 1970's.  Following the end of the Vietnam War, the majority of the Air Force fleet were replaced by C-130 Hercules.  The final DHC-4 Caribou was eventually retired from USAF service as late as 1985 were it had been serving as the jump-platform for the US Army Golden Kights Parachute Display Team.

 

The last aircraft in military service was Caribou (A4-140) in Australia which was eventually demobbed in November 2009.  Some 32 nations around the world employed the aircraft in military roles.

 

Some aircraft have now been modified to turboprop power (two PWC PT6A-67T) by Pen Turbo Aviation and remain active in civilian and commercial hands.

 

It is though that only 3 aircraft remain airworthy with a huge number remaining on display in museums around the world (see list below).