De Havilland Canada
De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited (DHC) is a Canadian aircraft manufacturer that has produced numerous aircraft models since its inception including the popular Dash 8. The company's primary facilities were located in the Downsview area of Toronto, Ontario for many years; in 2022, it was announced that it would relocate primary manufacturing to De Havilland Field, under development near Calgary, Alberta. The aircraft types currently in production or planned for production include the DHC-6 Twin Otter, DHC-8 Dash 8, and DHC-515 Firefighter.
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 1928 |
| Headquarters | Calgary, Canada |
Key people | Brian Chafe (CEO) |
| Products | |
Number of employees | 1,200 |
| Parent | Longview Aviation Capital |
| Subsidiaries | Viking Air |
| Website | dehavilland |
The aircraft company was created in 1928 by the British de Havilland Aircraft Company to build Moth aircraft for the training of Canadian airmen, and subsequently after the Second World War, designed and produced indigenous designs.
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.
DHC was eventually acquired by Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace in 1992 after cumulative losses of US$ 636 million over five years under the helm of Boeing.
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 November 2018, Viking Air's holding company, Longview Aviation Capital, announced the acquisition of the Q400 program, along with the rights to the de Havilland name and trademark. The deal, which closed on 3 June 2019 following regulatory approval, brought the entire de Havilland product line under the same banner for the first time in decades, under a new holding company named De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited.
In the summer of 2021, De Havilland stopped production at its Downsview site and officially closed it in the summer of 2022 at the end of its lease. In September 2022, De Havilland announced its plans to construct a new manufacturing facility, De Havilland Field, in Wheatland County, Alberta. The new facility is intended to merge its two manufacturing facilities and produce the Twin Otter and Dash 8 planes, as well as the new DHC-515 firefighting aircraft. First production at the new site is planned to begin in 2025.