The King Beaver is a single-engine utility aircraft with the same capabilities of the DHC Beaver but twice as large, hence its original name. The plane was designed in 1950 and used for search-and-rescue operations and to develop water bomb fighting techniques during forest fires. It also has been flown over Antarctica under perilous conditions on more than one occasion; first by Sir Edmund Hillary himself who completed what had previously never been done before: crossing all 10 degrees south latitude from coast to coast without any outside assistance or support whatsoever!