The de Havilland Aircraft Company of Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single engine, high-wing propeller aircraft designed and built by de Havilland Canada as a larger aircraft to fulfill similar roles to the DHC-2 Beaver. Like the DHC-2 Beaver, it is a rugged short take-off and landing (STOL) utility aircraft, ideally suited for operations from unprepared airfields. Built at Downsview, near Toronto during the 1950s, it was initially designated as a 'King Beaver’.
Passenger capacity was increased to around 10 seats, plus two crew, and power was provided by the 600hp Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp radial engine. It could be equipped with wheels, skis, floats or amphibious floats to suit operating conditions.
The prototype (CF-SKX-X) was flown for the first time on 12th December 1951, and overall some 466 were built, finding a ready market with both civilian and military users.
Military users included the US Army (200 aircraft as U-1A), Canada (66 as CSR-123) and the US Navy (four aircraft as UC-1 (later U-1C)). These were also joined by many other nations, including Australia, Burma, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Norway. It was also successfully used to support the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1955-58, which achieved the first overland crossing of the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Pole.
Production of the DHC-3 ceased in 1967.