It’s a much bigger
Beaver
By Randy Dufault
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The giant Noorduyn
Norseman dwarfs owner Forrest Klies (top center) and his
"crew," Glen Olson, Captain David Klies, and Jack
Mason. Photo by Dave Higdon.
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Since 1984, Forrest Klies’
de Havilland Beaver has been a fixture in the Classic camping area. But
it won’t be there this year.
Klies, of Basin, Montana,
had long sought an airplane with more load-carrying capability than the
Beaver. Complicating his search was the fact that his home strip is only
2,000 feet long, not a terribly short runway, though the field’s
6,300-foot elevation makes it seem much shorter for most airplanes. A
short takeoff and landing capability, like the Beaver’s, was
absolutely necessary.
Klies found his bigger
Beaver in a 1944 Noorduyn Norseman. With only 30 hours on the tach after
a 4,500-man-hour restoration, Klies brought the Norseman to its first,
but according to him, certainly not its last, EAA AirVenture.
According to Klies his
Norseman is the only one flying in the lower 48 states and the only one
he knows of flying on wheels in North America. "There’s about 20
of them flying in Canada that we know of, and about 15 in Africa. There’s
one in Alaska flying on floats," he said, adding, "There’s
10 that we found on the U.S. registry, but they’re all in junkyards or
in the process [of restoration]."
The Norseman came from a
need during World War II for a heavy-hauling utility airplane that could
get in and out of very short runways. A joint effort of the United
States and Canada, its design drew from the need to conserve strategic
materials and a desire to use parts that were readily available.
Even though aluminum
aircraft construction technology was well developed at the time, the
Norseman’s wings sport a wooden structure, conserving the valuable
metal for other wartime needs. While the basic fuselage structure is of
welded steel tubing, wooden components give it its shape.
The factory that
manufactured Klies’ Norseman is the same one that built the Harvard,
Canada’s version of the T-6 trainer. In fact, the business end of the
Norseman—a Pratt & Whitney R1340 radial engine, cowling, and
propeller—is exactly the same as on the Harvard.
"We thought that it
had T-6 landing gear as well," Klies said, "but when we tried
some T-6 parts they wouldn’t fit. Turns out it has P-40 [Warhawk]
landing gear. Two sets of them actually came with the airplane, though
we didn’t think it was going to fit."
Originally delivered to a
U.S. weather station in Labrador, Canada, the airplane served in a
number of bush flying roles, both in the United States and Canada, until
the economics of fueling the large Pratt and maintaining the wood and
fabric likely gave way to a retirement.
Klies found the Norseman
in a barn outside of Great Falls, Montana. Due to 21 years of
restoration effort by a number of well-meaning owners, most of the parts
necessary for a complete restoration came with the plane. He loaded
everything up and hauled it to a restoration facility in California.
Work began on the project, but a tragic accident that took the lives of
several members of the restoration team put the venture back on hold.
Klies finally found the
skill he needed to get the plane back in the air at Webber’s Aero
Repair in Alexandria, Minnesota. Alexandria was home to the Bellanca
Aircraft factory, one of the last factories still producing aircraft
with large portions of their structure made from wood. Though the
factory closed long ago, the restoration team, led by Kevin Sather,
still had plenty of the necessary woodworking experience to complete the
project.
As for hauling a load,
the Norseman can take off with 4,000 pounds more than it weighs when
empty. The 250 gallons of fuel and 27 gallons of oil that feed the big
Pratt are responsible for some of that load.
Klies, who was accompanied by his brother
David Klies and Glen Olson on the flight to AirVenture, doesn’t have a
lot of plans for the Norseman, other than bringing it here every year.
"I’m on a honeymoon with it right now; this is its shakedown
cruise," he said. "When I really get to where I’m married to
it, maybe in a couple of years, when we learn a little more about it, I’m
sure we’ll take it to all the air shows around America."
