VICTORIA, British Columbia — The Twin Otter took its maiden flight in 1965. To commemorate that anniversary, Viking Air is planning a special 50th Anniversary Celebration Tour, travelling to a variety of Canadian cities.
The tour will commence July 1 as part of the City of Victoria’s Canada Day festivities, where a fleet of Viking aircraft will fly over the “Living Flag” display on the lawn of the Victoria Legislature. The aircraft will then depart on July 2 for a two-and-a-half week flying tour to the North.
Viking pilots and dignitaries, along with a documentary film crew, will leave Victoria BC, and head to Yellowknife in two planes, including a Series 400 Twin Otter demonstrator affectionately known as “Viki.” The team will stop at 13 different northern communities and locations, including Canadian Forces Bases in Eureka and Alert.
“Whether on wheels, floats, skis or tundra tires, the Twin Otter has been a lifeline of transportation, community connection and commerce for isolated regions, not only in Canada’s north but around the world,” commented David Curtis, Viking president & CEO, who is taking part in the journey. “This tour is an opportunity to connect with some of our customers and view their operations first hand, so I’m excited to personally visit so many of these northern communities in one extensive trip.”
At 11 of the scheduled tour locations, a small ceremony will be held at the local airport. Residents are invited to view the Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft, share Twin Otter stories, and sign a wing rib for the 100th Viking production aircraft, scheduled to be built in 2016.
The celebration ceremony dates, locations and times are:
- July 3 Cambridge Bay, 1 pm
- July 4 Resolute, 3 pm
- July 5 Pond Inlet, 1:30 pm
- July 7 Gjoa Haven, 12 noon
- July 8 Yellowknife, 1:30 pm
- July 13 Whitehorse, 2 pm
- July 14 Inuvik, 3:30 pm
- July 15 Tuktoyaktuk, 10:30 am
- July 15 Sachs Harbour, 3:30 pm
- July 16 Fort Good Hope, 1 pm
- July 17 Norman Wells, 1 pm
The legacy de Havilland Twin Otter took its first flight 50 years ago on May 20th, 1965.
Today, over 100 of the new Viking Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft have been sold to 27 countries worldwide.
I flew -300 Twin Otters for Rocky Mountain Airways out of Denver to destinations throughout the Colorado mountains. It was my introduction to an airline career that also included the de Havilland Dash 7. I had an opportunity to fly these planes over 10,000 hours with some of the industry’s premier mountain pilots. They are suburb airplanes that could handle the most challenging of conditions.
Great versatile aircraft. I flew the -200 & -300 for Metro Airlines and Aramco in the 1970’s and accumulated 4000 hours.