Not surprising that de Havilland’s rugged little Beaver bush plane, an aircraft that has flown countless prospectors, geologists, etc. into Canada’s hinterland in search of metals and minerals, should get international recognition as one of the country’s 10 most significant engineering achievements in the last 100 years. First produced 40 years ago, the Beaver is still contributing to northern development.
A jury of eight professional engineers picked the Beaver out of a total of 110 engineering achievements nominated by some 125,000 engineers across Canada, as part of the celebration of the fact that this is the 100th year of engineering as a profession in this country.
Two more of the 10 top selections also involved transportation. They were the development of the railway networks across Canada, starting in 1885, and the skidoo, the invention of Quebec’s Armand Bombardier. Certainly the railroad system, too, has played an enormous role in the development of Canada’s mineral resources, and while the snowmobile is not involved directly in mining operations per se, it is a useful vehicle particularly in the northern communities where mining is prevalent.
One other of the jury’s selections in the top 10 deserves mention in this context. That is the Athabasca oil sands in northeastern Alberta, where every engineering discipline was applied to get oil from the sands, involving some eight million manhours of engineering, and creating the world’s only commercial oil sands production plants.
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