On a recent trip to Costa Rica, we flew in via the Guanacaste Airport in Liberia, Costa Rica. When leaving the airport on the way to our resort I noticed what appeared to be a hangar with a couple of airplanes and some large guns sitting outside. These of course caught my attention and I took pictures so I could investigate into what airplanes and guns they were.
DHC-4 Caribou
From my research the large aircraft appears to be a de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou which was used by the Costa Rican Air Vigilance Service for police operations.
According to the Liberia Guanacaste Airport website, the Servicio de Vigilancia Aerea (SVA) “is the airport’s police department. They man checkpoints before entering the departure gates. Terminal and runway perimeter security are dealt with by the SVA. In addition, they can make traffic stops.”
Click here to see this location on Google Maps, along with some more pictures.
The DHC-4 Caribou, designated by the US military as the CV-2 or the C-7 Caribou, is a Canadian built cargo aircraft that is built by de Havilland. The first flight for one of these aircraft was on July 30, 1958 and they were produced from 1958 to 1968.
307 DHC-4 Caribou were built and the one I saw in Costa Rica has a registration number of MSP002.
I did find a picture of the aircraft from when it was still in service on FlightAware.com.
Breda M35 AA Gun
In the pictures you can also see a gray colored gun on wheels, and from my research I believe this is a Breda M35 AA Gun. The Breda M35 was designed in 1932 by the Italian company Breda Meccanica Bresciana and produced in the 1930s and 1940s. The M35 is a 20 mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun that can fire 240 rounds per minute.
It was utilized in multiple placements, including ground placements, on ship decks, and on other light tanks and armored cars. The M35 was mainly used by the Italian Army during World War 2, but was also utilized during the Spanish Civil War, and by other countries militaries as well. According to the Wikipedia article about the M35, Costa Rica is listed as one of the countries that operated the M35.
If I have correctly identified this gun, based on the age of the gun, it might have been used during the Costa Rican Civil War in 1948.
Learn more about the Breda M35 on Wikipedia.
Cessna 188
There was a smaller orange, white, and blue aircraft also sitting at this location. I did some digging and I believe this plane to be a Cessna 188.
Mortar
You can also see in the pictures a green colored small mortar-like gun on wheels. I looked through many pictures of mortars to see if I could locate this model, but they all look too similar for me to make a match based off of this picture alone.
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Sources
irairport@wp. (2024, September 14). Liberia Guanacaste Airport (LIR) | Liberia, Costa Rica. Liberia Guanacaste Airport (LIR). https://www.lirairport.com/
Wikipedia contributors. (2024c, September 10). De Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-4_Caribou
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, November 22). Air Vigilance Service. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Vigilance_Service
Wikipedia contributors. (2024a, July 15). Breda 20/65 mod.35. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda_20/65_mod.35
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, September 9). Cessna 188. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_188