Formerly | Bellanca Aircraft Company |
---|---|
Industry | Aerospace |
Founded | 1927 |
Founders | Giuseppe Mario Bellanca |
Headquarters | |
Website | bellancaaircraft |
AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983, it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company. The company was founded in 1927 by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, although it was preceded by previous businesses and partnerships in which aircraft with the Bellanca name were produced, including Wright-Bellanca, in which he was in partnership with Wright Aeronautical.
In 2021 the company was reformed as Bellanca Aircraft, Inc and located in Sulphur, Oklahoma. The new company supplies maintenance and aircraft parts, for the legacy Cruisemaster and Viking aircraft. [1]
After Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, the designer and builder of Italy's first aircraft, moved to the United States in 1911, he began to design aircraft for a number of firms, including the Maryland Pressed Steel Company, Wright Aeronautical Corporation and the Columbia Aircraft Corporation. Bellanca founded his own company, Bellanca Aircraft Corporation of America, in 1927, sited first in Richmond Hill, New York and moving in 1928 to New Castle (Wilmington), Delaware. In the 1920s and 1930s, Bellanca's aircraft of his own design were known for their efficiency and low operating cost, gaining fame for world record endurance and distance flights. Lindbergh's first choice for his New York to Paris flight was a Bellanca WB-2. The company's insistence on selecting the crew drove Lindbergh to Ryan. [2]
Bellanca remained president and chairman of the board from the corporation's inception on the last day of 1927 until he sold the company to L. Albert and Sons in 1954. [3] From that time on, the Bellanca line was part of a succession of companies that maintained the lineage of the original aircraft produced by Bellanca. [4]
Model name | First flight | No. built | Type |
---|---|---|---|
Wright-Bellanca WB-1 | 1925 | 1 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
Wright-Bellanca WB-2 | 1926 | 1 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
CH-200 Pacemaker | 1928 | 2 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
Model K | 1928 | 1 | Single engine transport monoplane |
Model P series, C-27 Airbus | 1928 | 25-30 | Single engine transport monoplane |
Model J | 1929 | 4 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
CH-300 Pacemaker | 1929 | ~35 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
TES Tandem Blue Streak | 1929 | 1 | Twin-engine endurance record sesquiplane |
CH-400 Skyrocket | 1930 | 32 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
66-67 Aircruiser family | 1930 | 23 | Single engine utility monoplane |
J-300/J-3-500 | 1931 | 5 | Single engine endurance monoplane |
XSE-1 & XSE-2 | 1932 | 1 | Single engine carrier scout monoplane |
Model D Skyrocket/XRE-3 | 1932 | 7 | Single engine utility monoplane |
Model E Pacemaker | 1932 | 7 | Single engine utility monoplane |
Model F-1, F-2 Skyrocket | 1933 | 2 | Single engine utility monoplane |
28-70 Irish Swoop | 1934 | 1 | Single engine MacRobertson Air Race monoplane |
Model F Skyrocket | 1934 | 3 | Single engine utility monoplane |
77-140 | 1934 | 1 | Twin engine bomber |
77-320 Junior | 1934 | 4 | Twin engine bomber |
31-40 Senior Pacemaker family | 1935 | 10 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
31-50 Senior Skyrocket family | 1935 | 10~ | Single engine cabin monoplane |
XSOE-1 | 1936 | 1 | Single engine scout biplane floatplane |
28-90 Flash | 1937 | 43 | Single engine military monoplane |
14-7 Cruisair Junior | 1937 | 1 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
17-20 | 1937 | 0 | cabin monoplane |
28-92 | 1938 | 1 | Trimotor racing monoplane |
14-9 Cruisair | 1939 | 44 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
14-14/T14-14 | 1940 | 1 | Trainer based on Cruisair |
YO-50 | 1940 | 3 | Prototype single engine observation monoplane |
14-13 Cruisair Senior | 1945 | ~600 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
14-19 Cruisemaster | 1949 | 203 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
Citabria | 1964 | Single engine cabin monoplane | |
17-30 Viking | 1967 | 1,356 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
Decathlon | 1970 | Single engine cabin monoplane | |
Champ | 1971 | Single engine cabin monoplane | |
T-250 Aries | 1973 | 5 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
Scout | 1974 | 500+ | Single engine cabin monoplane |
19-25 Skyrocket II | 1975 | 1 | Single engine cabin monoplane |
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and various supplier companies, the company was immediately the country's largest aviation firm and built more than 142,000 aircraft engines for the U.S. military during World War II. Today, it no longer makes aircraft but makes many related components, particularly actuators, aircraft controls, valves, and surface-treatment services. It also supplies the commercial, industrial, defense, and energy markets; it makes parts for commercial and naval nuclear power systems, industrial vehicles, and oil- and gas-related machinery.
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Bertrand Blanchard Acosta was a record-setting aviator and test pilot. He and Clarence D. Chamberlin set an endurance record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds in the air. He later flew in the Spanish Civil War in the Yankee Squadron. He was known as the "bad boy of the air". He received numerous fines and suspensions for flying stunts such as flying under bridges or flying too close to buildings.
The Bellanca Aircruiser and Airbus were high-wing, single-engine aircraft built by Bellanca Aircraft Corporation of New Castle, Delaware. The aircraft was built as a "workhorse" intended for use as a passenger or cargo aircraft. It was available with wheels, floats or skis. The aircraft was powered by either a Wright Cyclone or Pratt and Whitney Hornet engine. The Airbus and Aircruiser served as both commercial and military transports.
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Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was an Italian-American aviation pioneer, airplane designer and builder, who is credited with many design firsts and whose aircraft broke many aviation records. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973. The Bellanca C.F., one of the world's first enclosed-cabin monoplanes, is on display at the National Air and Space Museum. Bellanca was known mostly for his long range aircraft which led the way for the advancement of international and commercial air transportation.
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The Bellanca CE was the first aircraft designed for the Maryland Pressed Steel Company, by the aircraft designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca. The aircraft was also called the Bellanca C.E. or the "CE Tractor Biplane".
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The Wright-Bellanca WB-1 was designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca for the Wright Aeronautical corporation for use in record-breaking flights.
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