Beechcraft  Expeditor (Beech 18)

General Description

The Beech 18 was designed as a light commercial transport and it first flew on January 15, 1937. Originally built for the civilian market, when World War Two broke out a military version was quickly put into production called the C-45 Expeditor. During World War Two, 5,204 military models of the Beech 18 were delivered to various allied militaries around the world, and production continued with approximately 2000 more examples being built after the war.

A number of C-45 transports served with the RCAF from 1944 to 1967 under the name Expeditor 3NM, 3NMT, and 3T. These airplanes were used as a twin-engine navigational trainers, crew transports, and as a “hacks” or taxis for moving small numbers of personnel around. Versions of both the C-45 and its civil counterpart, the Model 18, served with thirty of the world’s air forces.

Between 1958 and 1964, the two local RCAF Auxiliary units (442 Squadron and 443 Squadron) based at Vancouver Airport operated about a dozen of these aircraft around the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley area.

After military service many Beech 18s and C-45s found a second life in the civilian world. After WWII the Beech 18/C-45 became on of the first business aircraft readily available for reliable corporate transportation. Many were purchased for use as executive transports while most were converted for use to transport air freight. A very unique use of the Beech 18 was when they became the jump plane of choice for skydive operators. Some were even converted to floatplanes and used for passenger transportation by small coastal airlines, of which a small handful still operate today.

Our Beechcraft Expeditor

Built in 1952, our Expeditor was delivered new to the RCAF as RCAF 2307. It initially served at Station Summerside, PEI, before being placed in storage at No. 6 Repair Depot on 13 October 1953. It entered inactive reserve at the same depot in Trenton, Ontario on 21 November 1956. By 31 October 1958, it was transferred to Air Defence Command for use by No. 401 Squadron (Auxiliary) at RCAF Station St. Hubert, QC.

Converted to a Mk. 3NMT(Spec) on 8 January 1960, it was reassigned a year later to Training Command and No. 403 “City of Calgary” Squadron (Auxiliary). Still with this unit, it moved to Air Transport Command on 7 April 1961. In mid-1964 it underwent refitting to a Mk. 3NMT in Saskatoon, SK, then transferred to No. 1 Advanced Flying School in Rivers, Manitoba, followed by No. 3 Flying Training School at RCAF Station Portage la Prairie, MB on 31 July 1964.

On 18 May 1967 it was sent to Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg for magnetic particle inspection and spar reinforcement. It later served with No. 1 Canadian Forces Flight Instructor School at CFB Portage la Prairie in 1969. The aircraft was placed long-term in storage at Saskatoon on 28 November 1969 and listed as pending disposal as of 6 May 1970. Sold as surplus, it was registered as CF-CKT to R.W. Covlin of Edmonton, Alberta, and by 1976 it was being operated by International Forest Fire Systems of Calgary as C-FCKT. In this new role it was used to parachute forest fire fighters (“smoke jumpers”) into active wildfire areas. Forest fires are best handled by fire fighters on the ground, and when fires break out in remote areas it’s sometimes impossible to get ground personnel on site by ground transport because there simply are no roads leading close enough to the fire. Thus, the solution was found to drop fire fighters out of aircraft and right into the locations they were needed the most to fight the fires.

 In 1979, the Expeditor was operated by Eastern Pacific Aviation of Abbotsford, BC, and subsequently abandoned at Abbotsford Airport. The airplane was then repossessed by the Royal Bank of Canada and in 1982 the Canadian Museum of Flight purchased the abandoned and vandalized airframe from the bank for $1200.00. In 1984 the engineless airframe of the CF-CKT was air lifted from Abbotsford Airport to the CMF’s Crescent Beach homesite by Okanagan Helicopters and it has been on display at the museum ever since. In 1994, two Pratt and Whitney R-985 engines were acquired and rebuilt to display condition only, and installed on the airplane. This work was carried out by Okanagan Aero Engines and paid for by Rick Vodarek.

It is our ambition to eventually return this airplane to flying condition and have it painted in its original RCAF colours.