Editing AviaBellanca Aircraft

{{short description|American aircraft design and manufacturing company}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox company
| name = AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation
| logo = File:Bellanca Aircraft Corporation Logo.png
| image = Bellanca 14-13-2 C-FGGX 03.JPG
| image_caption = Bellanca 14-13-2
| former_name = Bellanca Aircraft Company
| type =
| industry = [[Aerospace]]
| fate =
| predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = -->
| successor =
| founded = {{Start date and age|1927}}
| founders = [[Giuseppe Mario Bellanca]]
| defunct =
| hq_location_city = [[Sulphur, OK]]
| hq_location_country =
| area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = -->
| key_people =
| products =
| owner = <!-- or: | owners = -->
| num_employees =
| num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) -->
| parent =
| website = {{URL|https://bellancaaircraft.com/}}
}}

'''AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation''' was an American [[aircraft]] design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983, it was known as the '''Bellanca Aircraft Company'''.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Aviation |first=David W. |last=Wragg |isbn=9780850451634 |edition=first |publisher=Osprey |year=1973 |page=60}}</ref> 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.<ref name="BellancaNews">{{cite web|url= https://bellancaaircraft.com/news-events/?active_filter=bellanca-news|title= News|access-date= 18 August 2022|author= Bellanca Aircraft, Inc|work= bellancaaircraft.com|date= 1 March 2022|archive-url= https://archive.today/20220818232623/https://bellancaaircraft.com/news-events/?active_filter=bellanca-news|archive-date= 18 August 2022|url-status= live}}</ref>

[[File:Bellanca wb 2.jpg|thumb|Bellanca WB-2 "Columbia"]]
[[File:Bellanca XRE-3 Skyrocket USMC c1933 (cropped).jpeg|thumb|Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket/XRE-3]]
[[File:Bellanca C-27C Airbus (cropped).jpg|thumb|Bellanca C-27C Airbus]]
[[File:Bellanca 31-42 Senior Pacemaker CF-ANX.jpg|thumb|Bellanca 31-42 Senior Pacemaker]]
[[File:bellanca.citabria.arp.jpg|thumb|Bellanca Citabria 7ECA]]
[[File:Viking 30456.jpg|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|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. [[Charles Lindbergh|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 Aeronautical Company|Ryan]].<ref name="Mondey p. 96">Mondey 1978, p. 96.</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://airandspace.si.edu/research/arch/findaids/bellanca/gmb_sec_1.html|title=The Giuseppe M. Bellanca Collection|publisher=National Air and Space Museum, Archives Division|access-date=2013-08-23|archive-date=June 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618161427/http://airandspace.si.edu/research/arch/findaids/bellanca/gmb_sec_1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref>Palmer 2001, p. 51.</ref>

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
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-200 Pacemaker|CH-200 Pacemaker]]
|1928
|2
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Aircruiser|Model K]]
|1928
|1
|Single engine transport monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Aircruiser|Model P series, C-27 Airbus]]
|1928
|25-30
|Single engine transport monoplane
|-
|[[Wright-Bellanca WB-2|Model J]]
|1929
|4
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker|CH-300 Pacemaker]]
|1929
|~35
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca TES|TES Tandem ''Blue Streak'']]
|1929
|1
|Twin-engine endurance record sesquiplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket|CH-400 Skyrocket]]
|1930
|32
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Aircruiser|66-67 Aircruiser family]]
|1930
|23
|Single engine utility monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-300|J-300/J-3-500]]
|1931
|5
|Single engine endurance monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca SE|XSE-1 & XSE-2]]
|1932
|1
|Single engine carrier scout monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket|Model D Skyrocket/XRE-3]]
|1932
|7
|Single engine utility monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker|Model E Pacemaker]]
|1932
|7
|Single engine utility monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket|Model F-1, F-2 Skyrocket]]
|1933
|2
|Single engine utility monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 28-70|28-70 ''Irish Swoop'']]
|1934
|1
|Single engine [[MacRobertson Air Race]] monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket|Model F Skyrocket]]
|1934
|3
|Single engine utility monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 77-140|77-140]]
|1934
|1
|Twin engine bomber
|-
|[[Bellanca 77-140|77-320 Junior]]
|1934
|4
|Twin engine bomber
|-
|[[Bellanca 31-40|31-40 Senior Pacemaker family]]
|1935
|10
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 31-40|31-50 Senior Skyrocket family]]
|1935
|10~
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca XSOE|XSOE-1]]
|1936
|1
|Single engine scout biplane floatplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 28-90|28-90 Flash]]
|1937
|43
|Single engine military monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Cruisair|14-7 Cruisair Junior]]
|1937
|1
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|17-20{{refn|group=lower-alpha|The June 1, 1937 edition of ''Aviation'' (today, ''[[Aviation Week & Space Technology]]'') describes the Bellanca 17-20 as a five-place, low wing monoplane designed for the medium-priced private market, and notes that the fuselage will have a stressed-skin, monocoque structure without compound curves.<ref name="aviation 54">"Newest Bellanca"</ref> The short note also quotes an unidentified source to say that the aircraft will be powered by a "well-known American inline motor", which the anonymous ''Aviation'' writer assumes to be a [[Menasco Motors Company|Menasco]].<ref name="aviation 54"/> The 1937 edition of ''[[Jane's All the World's Aircraft]]'' adds nothing more than this, simply noting that "Only very brief details were available at the time of going to press".<ref name="jawa275">Grey & Bridgman 1937, p.275.</ref> The 1938 edition no longer mentions it in its list of current Bellanca designs,<ref name="jawa248">Grey & Bridgman 1938, pp.248–51.</ref> and ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation'', published in 1980 and revised in 1989 and 1993 adds nothing more than was announced in ''Aviation'' in 1937.<ref name="jea150">Taylor 1993, p.150</ref>}}
|1937
|
|monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 28-92|28-92]]
|1938
|1
|Trimotor racing monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Cruisair|14-9 Cruisair]]
|1939
|44
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Cruisair|14-14/T14-14]]
|1940
|1
|Trainer based on Cruisair
|-
|[[Bellanca YO-50|YO-50]]
|1940
|3
|Prototype single engine observation monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 14-13 Cruisair Senior|14-13 Cruisair Senior]]
|1945
|~600
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 14-19 Cruisemaster|14-19 Cruisemaster]]
|1949
|203
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[American Champion Citabria|Citabria]]
|1964
|
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Viking|17-30 Viking]]
|1967
|1,356
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[American Champion Decathlon|Decathlon]]
|1970
|
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Aeronca Champ|Champ]]
|1946
|10,000+
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Aries|T-250 Aries]]
|1973
|5
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca 8GCBC Scout|Scout]]
|1974
|500+
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|[[Bellanca Skyrocket II|19-25 Skyrocket II]]
|1975
|1
|Single engine cabin monoplane
|-
|}

==Famous individual aircraft==
* ''[[Lituanica]]''
* ''[[Miss Veedol]]''
* ''[[The American Nurse (aircraft)|The American Nurse]]''

==See also==
* [[American Champion]]
* [[Bellanca Airfield]]
* [[Bush plane]]

==References==
===Footnotes===
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |title=Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1937 |editor1-last=Grey |editor1-first=C.G. |year=1937 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & company, ltd |location=London |editor2-last=Bridgman |editor2-first=Leonard }}
* {{cite book |title=Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938 |editor1-last=Grey |editor1-first=C.G. |year=1938 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & company, ltd |location=London |editor2-last=Bridgman |editor2-first=Leonard }}
* Mondey, David. ''The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Aircraft''. Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books Inc, 1978. {{ISBN|0-89009-771-2}}.
* {{cite magazine |title=Newest Bellanca |magazine=Aviation |date=June 1, 1937 |page=54 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York }}
* 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}}.
* {{cite book |last= Taylor |first= Michael J. H. |title=Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation |year=1993 |publisher=Studio Editions |location=London }}

==External links==
{{commons category|AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation}}
* {{Official website|https://bellancaaircraft.com/}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051217163426/http://www.aviabellancainc.com/ AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation website archives]}} on [[Archive.org]]
* [http://www.friendsofbellanca.org/ Friends of Bellanca Field]
* The main focus of the [http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/2288.xml George J. Frebert collection on Delaware aviation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030214111/http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead%2F2288.xml |date=2014-10-30 }} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20141030213927/http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/2011_297.xml George J. Frebert photograph collection on Delaware aviation] — ''both about Giuseppe Bellanca & his Bellanca Aircraft Corporation; in the [[Hagley Museum and Library]].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=pAhMxZsoYkMC&pg=PA11 The Story of Bellanca Planes – Popular Aviation]

{{Bellanca}}
{{Champion Aircraft}}
{{American Champion}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aviabellanca Aircraft}}
[[Category:Aircraft manufacturers of the United States]]
[[Category:Companies based in Minnesota]]
[[Category:Defunct manufacturing companies based in Delaware]]
[[Category:Douglas County, Minnesota]]
[[Category:History of Omaha, Nebraska]]
[[Category:1927 establishments in New York (state)]]