Bush plane
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
A bush plane is a general aviation aircraft serving remote, undeveloped areas of a country, usually the African bush, Alaskan and Canadian tundra or the Australian Outback. The most common bush planes are the Piper Super Cub, Douglas DC-3, and De Havilland Beaver, although countless other aircraft types serve in these hostile regions.
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Common traits
- High wings provide improved ground visibility during flight and greater distance between the bush and the wing during landing.
- Conventional landing gear (two large main wheels and a small rear wheel, resulting in an elevated "snout"), referred to as a 'taildragger' arrangement, allows for added prop clearance over rough-surfaced runways. Bush pilots are often proud of the fact that most of their landings are logged in taildraggers.
- High-lift devices such as flaps, vortex generators, and leading-edge slats improve low speed flight characteristics.
- Very large low pressure tires enable the pilot to land and take off in unimproved areas. It is not uncommon for a bush pilot to land (and take off) where no airplane has been before.
