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 San Luis Obispo, CA with a satellite maintenance facility in Oklahoma. The new company supplies maintenance and aircraft parts, for the legacy Cruisemaster and Viking aircraft.

thumb|Bellanca WB-2 "Columbia"

thumb|Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket/XRE-3

thumb|Bellanca C-27C Airbus

thumb|Bellanca 31-42 Senior Pacemaker

thumb|Bellanca Citabria 7ECA

thumb|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.

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. 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.

In 2022, the company moved from Alexandria, Minnesota to Sulphur, Oklahoma. While as of 2024 the company website states "Bellanca recently opened a new aircraft factory and maintenance facility in Sulphur, Oklahoma," no new aircraft have been recently produced.

Aircraft

{|class="wikitable sortable"

|-

!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

|

|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

|1946

|10,000+

|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

  • Lituanica
  • Miss Veedol
  • The American Nurse

See also

  • American Champion
  • Bellanca Airfield
  • Bush plane

References

Footnotes

Citations

Bibliography

  • Mondey, David. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Aircraft. Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books Inc, 1978. .
  • Palmer, Trisha, ed. "Bellanca Viking Series". Encyclopedia of the World's Commercial and Private Aircraft. New York: Crescent Books, 2001. .
  • on Archive.org
  • Friends of Bellanca Field
  • The main focus of the George J. Frebert collection on Delaware aviation and the George J. Frebert photograph collection on Delaware aviation — both about Giuseppe Bellanca & his Bellanca Aircraft Corporation; in the Hagley Museum and Library.
  • The Story of Bellanca Planes – Popular Aviation