Designed by
Robert B. C. Noorduyn
, the Noorduyn Norseman was produced from 1935 to 1959, originally by
Noorduyn Aircraft Ltd.
and later by the
Canadian Car and Foundry
company.
With the experience of working on many ground-breaking designs at
Fokker
,
Bellanca
and
Pitcairn-Cierva
, Noorduyn decided to create his own design in 1934, the Noorduyn Norseman. Along with his colleague, Walter Clayton, Noorduyn created his original company, Noorduyn Aircraft Limited, in early 1933 at
Montreal
while a successor company was established in 1935, bearing the name Noorduyn Aviation.
Noorduyn's vision of an ideal bush plane began with a high-wing
monoplane
airframe to facilitate loading and unloading passengers and cargo at
seaplane
docks and airports; next, a Canadian operator utilizing existing talents, equipment and facilities should be able to make money using it; last, it should be all-around superior to those already in use there.
From the outset, Noorduyn designed his transport to have interchangeable wheel, ski or twin-float landing gear. Unlike most aircraft designs, the Norseman was first fitted with floats, then skis and, finally, fixed landing gear.
The final design looked much like Noorduyn's earlier Fokker designs, a high-wing braced monoplane with an all-welded steel tubing fuselage. Attached wood stringers carried a fabric skin. Its wing was all fabric covered wood, except for steel tubing flaps and ailerons. The divided landing gear were fitted to fuselage stubs; legs were secured with two bolts each to allow the alternate arrangement of floats or skis. The tail strut could be fitted with a wheel or tail skid.
The first Norseman, powered by a
Wright R-975
-E3 Whirlwind, was flight tested on floats on November 14, 1935, and was sold and delivered to Dominion Skyways Ltd. on January 18, 1936, registered as "CF-AYO" and named “Arcturus." In summer 1941, Warner Brothers leased CF-AYO for the filming of "
Captains of the Clouds
" starring
James Cagney
. Principal aerial photography took place near
North Bay, Ontario
with CF-AYO carrying temporary registration "CF-HGO." CF-AYO was lost in a crash in Algonquin Park in 1952. Its wreckage currently is on display at the
Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre
.
Almost immediately, the Norseman proved itself to be a rugged, reliable workhorse with steady sales. The first aircraft, CF-AYO, was designated the
Norseman Mk I
. The next aircraft, "CF-BAU," having some minor changes required after the certification tests, and a new
Pratt & Whitney R-1340
Wasp SC-1 engine up-rated from 420 to 450?hp, was designated
Norseman Mk II
while the next three aircraft were
Norseman Mk IIIs
: "CF-AZA" going to MacKenzie Air Service,
Edmonton, Alberta
, "CF-AZE" to Prospector Airways, Clarkson, Ontario and "CF-AZS" to Starrat Airways, Hudson, Ontario. "CF-BAU" would be modified on June 26, 1937 to become the prototype
Norseman Mk IV
, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Wasp S3H-1. The Mk IV became the "definitive" model but the production run might have ended at a few hundred examples if not for the advent of the
Second World War
.
Until 1940, the Noorduyn company had sold only 17 aircraft in total, primarily to commercial operators in Canada's north and to the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
. With the outbreak of war in Europe, demand for a utility transport led to major military orders. The
Royal Canadian Air Force
and the
United States Army Air Forces
became the two largest operators; the RCAF ordered 38
Norseman Mk IVW
s for radio and navigational training for the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan
.
USAAF Colonel
Bernt Balchen
had been involved in establishing a staging route across Greenland to facilitate the ferrying of aircraft from North America to Europe. He required a bush plane rugged enough to survive in the harsh conditions of the Arctic. After evaluating six Norsemans diverted from a previous RCAF order, late in 1941, he recommended the purchase of the Norseman Mk IV specially modified to USAAF requirements as the
YC-64A
. After the US entry into the Second World War, the USAAF placed the first of several orders for a production version
C-64A Norseman
. The principal differences involved fitting two fuselage belly tanks bringing the standard fuel capacity to 201?imp?gal (910?L; 241?US?gal); an additional cabin fuel tank of 32 Imp. gal (145 L) could also be installed. These changes resulted in an increase of 950?lb (430?kg) in the loaded weight of the standard Mk IV. Deliveries began in mid-1942, with the American military eventually placing orders for 749 Norseman Mk IVs as the C-64A (later
UC-64A
).
Throughout the Second World War, the USAAF Norseman aircraft were used in North America (primarily Alaska) as well as other in theaters of war, including Europe. Three UC-64As were used by the
US Navy
under the designation
JA-1
. Six
C-64B
floatplanes were used by the
US Army Corps of Engineers
, as well as by other Allied air forces, which placed orders for 43 Norseman Mk IVs. The RCAF ordered an additional 34 aircraft as
Norseman Mk VI
. Noorduyn was the sole manufacturer, but when the USAAF considered ordering a larger number of C-64As, license production of 600 by
Aeronca Aircraft
Corp. (Middletown, Ohio) was contemplated before the contract was cancelled in 1943.
Major
Glenn Miller
was a passenger on a UC-64A Norseman (s/n 44-70285) flown by
F/O
John R. S. Morgan which
disappeared
over the
English Channel
on December 15, 1944, possibly due to aircraft carburetor icing or being struck by bombs jettisoned from RAF
Lancasters
after an aborted raid.
[1]
It was also in 1944 that a Norseman crashed into
King Alfred's Tower
, a 50?m (160?ft) tall
folly
in Somerset, England, killing all five air crew. The tower, part of the celebrated
Stourhead
estate and landscape, was not repaired until 1986 which included the use of a
Wessex helicopter
to lower a 300?kg (660?lb) stone onto the top.
In postwar production, the
Canada Car and Foundry
in
Fort William, Ontario
acquired rights to the Norseman design, producing a version known as the
Norseman Mk V
, a civilian version of the wartime Mk IV. In order to exploit the market further, the "Can Car" factory designed and built the
Norseman Mk VII
. This version had a bigger engine, a new all-metal wing and greater cargo capacity but was fated never to go into production. With large Korean War commitments at that time, the company put it into temporary storage where it was destroyed in a hangar fire in September 1951.
In 1953, Noorduyn headed a group of investors who bought back the jigs and equipment from
Canada Car and Foundry
and started a new company called Noorduyn Norseman Aircraft Ltd. Bob Noorduyn became ill and died at his home in South Burlington, Vermont, on 22 February 1959. The company continued to provide support for operating Norseman aircraft and built three new Mk Vs before selling its assets in 1982 to Norco Associates. Norco provided support services only, as Norseman aircraft manufacture was labor-intensive and very expensive.
The last Noorduyn Norseman to be built was sold and delivered to a commercial customer on January 19, 1959. A total of 903 Norseman aircraft (Mk I ? Mk V) were produced and delivered to various commercial and military customers. There are currently 42 Norseman aircraft on the active Canadian aircraft registry and 9 active in the United States. The number in use worldwide is not known.
In recognition of the Norseman's role in serving the remote villages of northern Canada, the town of
Red Lake, Ontario
, a jumping-off point for remote communities in
Northwestern Ontario
, promotes itself as
The Norseman Capital of the World
. Each summer in July, the "Norseman Floatplane Festival" brings Norseman aircraft to Red Lake as the centrepiece of a community based weekend festival ranging from stage entertainment, children's games and rides, contests, cultural and historical displays and street vendors with craft and specialty booths.
The Canadian Second World War "ace-of-aces"
George Beurling
died in a Norseman while landing at
Urbe Airport
in Rome, Italy, in May 1948. Beurling had been ferrying the aircraft to the nascent
Israeli Air Force
. The remains of another Israeli Air Force Norseman adorn the IAF's memorial to its fallen on Har Hatayasim (Pilots' Mountain) near Jerusalem. The plane had crashed during
Operation Maccabi
of the
1948 Arab-Israeli War
.
[2]
[3]