<hi style=afpcap>The de Havilland company of Canada has supplied a number of products to the US military, with one of the first being the DHC-2 Beaver. The type won a 1951 joint US Air Force/Army competition for a new liaison aircraft, with four being obtained off-the-shelf by the former and two by the latter for evaluation with the designation YL-20. Due to various rulings on the acquisition of military equipment from overseas, congressional approval was required before large scale production could begin. The US obtained 968 L-20As and six L-20Bs, of which approximately 200 were for the Air Force with the remainder being supplied to the Army. The L-20 changed designation to the U-6 in 1962, with some becoming RU-6As for service in Vietnam performing airborne radio direction finding duties. Beaver production extended from the prototypes ordered in 1951 until the last contract placed in 1959. </hi>
