BELLANCAAircraft Designs

For infomation on all types of currently flying Bellanca aircraft, the Bellanca-Champion Club is who you need to contact.

Aero Data Files [site disappeared] had an impressive collection of Bellanca data.

Aeroweb: The Aviation Enthusiasts Corner has several Bellanca entries throughout their database.

The Royal Canadian Air Force has a reference page with data on the Bellanca Pacemaker and how the RCAF utilized them.

The Canadian Wings Database [site disappeared] had an entry with data on and an illustration of an RCAF Pacemaker on floats.

The Port Columbus Historical Society [site disappeared] webpage was handled by Ted Keener who has many nice early airliner photographs from this field. One of the photos is a Bellanca Pacemaker.

The Canadian Aviation Museum (formerly National Aviation Museum) in Ottawa, Canada has a page with data on the CH-300, background and a couple of photos of Pacemakers on floats in the wild.

FlightDeck has a photograph of the CH-300 the NAM has on display.

The Air Force Association has a chronological list of aviation events of note. Entries for Elinor Smith's altitude record in April of 1929 and the Pangborn/Herndon Pacific crossing in October of 1931.

They also have a listing in their Aviator's Hall of Fame for G.M. Bellanca.

NASA's Astronautics and Aeronautics chronology has 2 listings for Bellancas; Pangborn/Herndon in 1931 and Lees and Brossy later that year.

In 1931, Walter Lees and Fred Brossy flew a non-stop endurance flight in a Packard diesel equipped, Bellanca Pacemaker for over 80 hours. This record was not surpassed until 1986 with Rutan and Yeager's Round the World flight! Walter Lees' daugher and son-in-law have a very thorough website highlighting this feat and the rest of her father's career in aviation.

Here's a nice capsule description of the first trans-Pacific crossing by Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr.

Pangborn Airport is the name of the airport serving Douglas County and Chelan County in Washington State. Their website has a link to information about efforts to build a replica of the Miss Veedol Pacemaker and re-enact the Pangborn/Herndon Trans Pacific flight.

Western Canada Aviation Museum has several photographs of Pacemakers on their site.

The Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum has 2 Bellanca airframe restoration projects listed. One is a 1929 Pacemaker, the other a 1935 Senior Pacemaker.

The Lituanica Page has information about an effort to successfully retrace S. Darius and S. Girenas' flight from New York to Lithuania using a rebuilt Bellanca Pacemaker. Includes background information, and project progress updates. This attempt was one of the many early trans-Atlantic plane crossings flown in a CH-300.

Where Gliders are born is a website that has a nice background page concerning Darius and Girenas' attempted non-stop flight from New York to Kaunas, Lithuania.

The Bellanca "Peru" is another record setting Bellanca. This plane was flown from Washington D.C. to Peru by way of the countries listed in the photo caption, in 1929. More information about the flight can be found here.

FotoImages has 3 Bellanca photographs. 2 are of a 1912 Bellanca Parasol replica, N1912; the other is of a Skyrocket, NX-237. These photographs were taken by the site designer, C.H. Hamilton at the 1976 EAA Fly-In at Oshkosh, WI. Here's more about who owns these 2 airplanes:

I received this from a Brian Kenney , "The 1912 Bellanca Parasol referenced was built by a young man from Illinois. It made a great impression on me at my first EAA convention(1972?). It was powered by a Continental A-50 (50 hp) and it flew very well. The builder was in his early twenties at the time. He got married and added another seat to the aircraft. Not too long after he and his new bride were killed in the aircraft. It was apparently a stall spin incident, not a failure of the aircraft. I have the name of the young man somewhere at home."

The Skyrocket, NX-237 is evidently the same one featured on the Science Museum of Virginia webpage next. David Hahn of the SMV wrote, "I think it belonged to the Shannon Air Museum at the time. The aircraft today appears to have the same tail markings as in the photograph."

The Science Museum of Virginia has a 1928 Skyrocket on display.

The Carolinas Aviation Museum has a 1940 Bellanca listed as being used as an airliner in the late 1930's.

Miscellaneous Bellanca links

Airplane Supply House has just the thing...a 1955 Bellanca Skyrocket project plane for sale.

Guide to 900 Aircraft Museums now has its own webpage. Want to find a museum with your favorite Bellanca on display? THIS is what you need to do so.

This type-specific site, the Super Viking Website has a nice background summary of G.M. Bellanca's career and significance as an aircraft designer.

Todd Peasley's Super Viking page is a personal reflection on why he flies this classic design airplane. He points out pluses and minuses as well as steers you to places to obtain service and further information on this model.

Uglies! has an excellent photograph of the infamous Bellanca Blue Streak. Sponsored by the Chicago Daily News, this experimental aircraft was the second version of an earlier design, the Bellanca Tandem TES. Both aircraft appear essentially the same, with a twin engine, push/pull configuration and a twin boom tail structure. The single propeller shaft running through the fuselage suffered serious vibration imbalance and caused the Blue Streak to crash, killing the pilot, Shirley Short and two crew members. [According to Rick Kelly, Researcher for Motorsport Memorial, there were four casualties: Shirley S. Short, pilot; Richard K. Peck, co-pilot; Louis Rice, radio operator; Robert W. Gormley, mechanic]

The Flying Pioneers Photo Archive has photos of G.M. Bellanca next to the Columbia, as well as a couple of other photographs of Columbia before it attempted its second trans-Atlantic crossing.

C. A. Hood and Associates has a large collection of out of print books and periodicals. They don't have the 2 issues of Sport Flying that feature Roscoe Deering's article on G. M. Bellanca, but I did notice 6 different Bellanca references in other periodicals. 3 in Air Progress , 1 issue of Flight International , 1 in Flying and 1 in Air Classics . I have not been through the other reference materials listed.

Sky Max has a section of Bellanca accessories. Maybe not period, but the Bellanca logo is supposed to be close to earlier design concepts.

The A. J. Jackson Photographic Collection has many Bellanca photographs listed. 14 Series, 28 Series, Pacemaker, Cruisairs and more.

AVShop.Net has a clip art library with listings for Skyrocket, Citabria and Viking images and/or icons.

The Ninety Nines is an organization of women pilots and dates back to the early period of aviation. Their name comes from the first group of 99 women to receive their pilot's licenses. Elinor Smith was a Ninety-Nine.

A very nice page describing the history of the Brazilian Air Force. It includes a reference to the Pacemakers and Skyrockets the B.A.F. had in its inventory at the start of World War II.

The Latin American Aviation Historical Society is a webzine devoted to a lesser known arena of aviation events. They have no articles on Bellancas in Central or South America yet, but this site looks promising.

The AirPage has entries on the Bellanca Pacemaker and cousins, the Airbus and its versions as well as the Champion and the Citabria. This page is not being updated currently, that's why the C-97 label is incorrect on his page.

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