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, California, with a satellite maintenance facility in Oklahoma. The new company supplies maintenance and aircraft parts, for the legacy Cruisemaster and Viking aircraft.
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.Mondey 1978, p. 96.
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.Palmer 2001, p. 51.
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 Model nameFirst flightNo. builtTypeWright-Bellanca WB-119251Single engine cabin monoplaneWright-Bellanca WB-219261Single engine cabin monoplaneCH-200 Pacemaker19282Single engine cabin monoplaneModel K19281Single engine transport monoplaneModel P series, C-27 Airbus192825-30Single engine transport monoplaneModel J19294Single engine cabin monoplaneCH-300 Pacemaker1929~35Single engine cabin monoplaneTES Tandem Blue Streak19291Twin-engine endurance record sesquiplaneCH-400 Skyrocket193032Single engine cabin monoplane66-67 Aircruiser family193023Single engine utility monoplaneJ-300/J-3-50019315Single engine endurance monoplaneXSE-1 & XSE-219321Single engine carrier scout monoplaneModel D Skyrocket/XRE-319327Single engine utility monoplaneModel E Pacemaker19327Single engine utility monoplaneModel F-1, F-2 Skyrocket19332Single engine utility monoplane28-70 Irish Swoop19341Single engine MacRobertson Air Race monoplaneModel F Skyrocket19343Single engine utility monoplane77-14019341Twin engine bomber77-320 Junior19344Twin engine bomber31-40 Senior Pacemaker family193510Single engine cabin monoplane31-50 Senior Skyrocket family193510~Single engine cabin monoplaneXSOE-119361Single engine scout biplane floatplane28-90 Flash193743Single engine military monoplane14-7 Cruisair Junior19371Single engine cabin monoplane17-201937monoplane28-9219381Trimotor racing monoplane14-9 Cruisair193944Single engine cabin monoplane14-14/T14-1419401Trainer based on CruisairYO-5019403Prototype single engine observation monoplane14-13 Cruisair Senior1945~600Single engine cabin monoplane14-19 Cruisemaster1949203Single engine cabin monoplaneCitabria1964Single engine cabin monoplane17-30 Viking19671,356Single engine cabin monoplaneDecathlon1970Single engine cabin monoplaneChamp194610,000+Single engine cabin monoplaneT-250 Aries19735Single engine cabin monoplaneScout1974500+Single engine cabin monoplane19-25 Skyrocket II19751Single 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. .
External links
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