AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation
FormerlyBellanca Aircraft Company
IndustryAerospace
Founded1927 (1927)
FoundersGiuseppe Mario Bellanca
Headquarters
Alexandria, MN
Websitebellancaaircraft.com

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]

Bellanca WB-2 "Columbia"
Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket/XRE-3
Bellanca C-27C Airbus
Bellanca 31-42 Senior Pacemaker
Bellanca Citabria 7ECA
Bellanca 17-30A Super Viking

History

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]

Aircraft

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

Famous individual aircraft

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Bellanca Aircraft, Inc (March 1, 2022). "News". bellancaaircraft.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  2. ↑ Mondey 1978, p. 96.
  3. ↑ "The Giuseppe M. Bellanca Collection". National Air and Space Museum, Archives Division. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
  4. ↑ Palmer 2001, p. 51.

Bibliography

  • Mondey, David. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Aircraft. Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books Inc, 1978. ISBN 0-89009-771-2.
  • Palmer, Trisha, ed. "Bellanca Viking Series". Encyclopedia of the World's Commercial and Private Aircraft. New York: Crescent Books, 2001. ISBN 0-517-36285-6.
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