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Noorduyn Norseman – Canada’s Rugged, Fabric-Covered Workhorse

Norseman CF-SAH entered the RCAF in 1939 for training, bombing and gunnery schools. On January 30, 1946, it joined the Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service as a landplane to reach prairie patients. In 1962, wing frost caused the loss of what pilots knew as the two-ton truck. (Photo by Don Watson)

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As Noorduyn Norseman UC-64B 43-5112 turned final approach on August 26, 1944, pilot Albert Hill idled the 600-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine and felt the airframe shudder with flaps locked down. When the airplane’s tires contacted the 2,300-foot soft soil airstrip at Fort Smith in Canada’s Northwest Territories, airspeed indicated 100 mph. Three waiting truck drivers watched what they expected would be a routine rollout. “As we had already thrown up a considerable amount...

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