Beaver aircraft stamp fails to take off with Canadian aviators

Stamp collector Brian Grant Duff, the owner of All Nations Stamp and Coin, calls the inclusion of an American aircraft on the Canadian stamp a mistake.

It was meant to honour the De Havilland Beaver — a Canadian aviation workhorse — but a small stamp is causing a big upheaval in Canadian aviation circles.

Canada Post unveiled the new stamp to much acclaim on Oct. 13 as part of its Canadians in Flight series, honouring the country’s achievements in aviation. The Crown corporation even sent its chief executive to British Columbia to mark the event. Victoria-based Viking Air owns the plans and tools used to build the Beaver and, crucially, spare parts.

But sharp-eyed aviation historians noticed a flaw. The aircraft pictured on the stamp bears the markings N995SP – an American registration owned by Sportsman’s Air Service, based in Anchorage, Alaska.

“(The plane) originally came out of Canada. It was picked up there as a wreck,” said owner Joe Schuster, who refurbished the plane in the 1990s and still flies it more than 500 hours a year ferrying tourists, hunters, and outdoors enthusiasts to hard-to-reach destinations.

“It flies slow, rarely gets over 1,000 feet elevation, and carries a big payload.”

The Beaver was the first all-metal bush plane designed and built in Canada, with 1,692 manufactured between 1947 and 1968. It still holds the record as the bestselling Canadian aircraft. More than 700 are still flying, including 14 in regular passenger service on the B.C. coast with Vancouver-based Harbour Air.

“Somewhere along the line (Canada Post) dropped the ball by putting a U.S. registration on the aircraft,” said Tim Cole, a Canadian aviator and author whose book Tight Floats & Tailwinds chronicles his life as a bush pilot and Transport Canada administrator.

“It would be kind of akin to having a foreign flag behind Terry Fox on a Canadian stamp.”