[6] In the 1980s, the government of Canada under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney privatized DHC and in 1986 sold the aircraft company to then Seattle-based Boeing.

[9] In 2006, Viking Air of Victoria, British Columbia, purchased the type certificates for all the original out-of-production de Havilland designs (DHC-1 to DHC-7).

In September 2022, DHC announced its plans to construct a new manufacturing facility, De Havilland Field, in Wheatland County, Alberta.

DHC was the Canadian unit of the parent British de Havilland and during World War II was made into a crown corporation of the government of Canada.

The Mosquito was designed to use speed instead of defensive armament to evade attack, and as a result, it was one of the fastest aircraft in the war, reaching 425 mph at 30,000 ft.

After the war, de Havilland Canada began to build its own designs uniquely suited to the harsh Canadian operating environment.

The company also continued production of several British de Havilland aircraft and later produced a licence-built version of the American-designed Grumman S2F Tracker.

The Chipmunk was an all-metal, low-wing, tandem two-place, single-engined airplane with a conventional landing gear, powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Major engine.

After being largely phased out by the RAF and RCAF in the 1950s and 1960s, surplus Chipmunks achieved widespread popularity for civil sport flying, competition aerobatics, aerial application, and glider towing.

An all-metal, high wing monoplane, the Beaver could be equipped with wheels, skis, or floats, and was originally powered by a single Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior piston engine.

The Beaver was soon adopted by the US Air Force (USAF) and US Army as a liaison aircraft, remaining in service well into the 1970s, and was also used by the militaries of numerous other nations, including Britain, Chile, and Colombia.

The Turbo Beaver offered improved operating weights and STOL performance, along with a longer cabin, allowing maximum accommodation for 11 including the pilot.

These aircraft were transferred to the USAF in 1967 and redesignated as the C-7, seeing extensive service during the Vietnam War, where some were captured by North Vietnamese forces and operated until the late 1970s.

Known originally as the Caribou II, the DHC-5 Buffalo was basically an enlarged DHC-4 with turboprop engines and a T-tail, developed to meet a US Army requirement for a STOL tactical airlifter with greater load-carrying ability than the DHC-4.

In the early 1980s, de Havilland Canada attempted to market the Buffalo for civil use as the "Transporter", but the demonstration aircraft crashed at the 1984 Farnborough Airshow and the project was abandoned.

One of Canada's most successful commercial aircraft designs with more than 990 built, the Twin Otter remains popular for its rugged construction and STOL capabilities.

Development dates back to January 1964, when DHC commenced work on a twin turboprop variant of the DHC-3 Otter as a STOL commuter airliner and utility transport.

The Series 200, introduced in April 1968, had an extended nose and reconfigured rear cabin storage compartment, greatly increasing cargo space.

[14] The four-engined DHC-7, popularly known as the Dash 7, was designed as a STOL 50-seat regional airliner capable of operating from strips as short as 915 metres (3,000 ft) in length.

De Havilland Canada began development of the Dash 8 in the late 1970s in response to high anticipated demand for regional airliners.

When Air Canada announced that Airbus had won the contract in 1988, amid claims of bribery, Boeing immediately put DHC up for sale, placing the company in jeopardy.

[8] DHC was eventually incorporated into the Bombardier group of companies and the Dash 8 remained in production, with a particular emphasis being placed on its quiet operation in comparison to other aircraft of a similar size.

The Downsview plant still continued to turn out civilian propeller aircraft after the ownership change, with the facility maintaining thousands of employees.

[23] In January 2019, Longview announced that it would establish a new company in Ontario, to be called De Havilland Aircraft Co. of Canada, to continue production of the Q400 model and support the Dash 8 range.

Some 1200 Bombardier staff transferred to the new De Havilland company, which intended to continue Dash 8-400 production at Downsview until a lease expires in 2023 and hopes to negotiate an extension to that date.

The facility will initially manufacture the DHC-515 fire-fighting aircraft; the DHC-6 Twin Otter and the Dash 8-400 will also be assembled at De Havilland Field once production resumes.