The Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker was a six-seat utility aircraft, built primarily in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a development of the Bellanca CH-200 , fitted with a more powerful engine and, like the CH-200, soon became renowned for its long-distance endurance.
20-658: Bellanca further developed the earlier CH-200 to create the CH-300 Pacemaker. The CH-300 was a conventional, high-wing braced monoplane with fixed tailwheel undercarriage. Like other Bellanca aircraft of the period, it featured "flying struts". While the CH-200 was powered by 220 hp Wright J-5 engines, the CH-300 series Pacemakers were powered by 300 hp Wright J-6s . Late in the series, some -300s were fitted with 420 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasps , leading to
40-600: A Packard DR-980 diesel , piloted by Walter Lees and Frederick Brossy , set a record for staying aloft for 84 hours and 33 minutes without being refuelled. This record was not broken until 55 years later. In Alaska and the Canadian bush, Bellancas were very popular. Canadian-operated Bellancas were initially imported from the United States, but later, six were built by Canadian Vickers in Montreal and delivered to
60-534: A Wright-Bellanca airplane won the Pulitzer Trophy Race using a Wright Whirlwind engine. In 1927, a Wright J-5C Whirlwind engine was used by Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis when he flew from New York City to Paris . Wright engines were also used by other famed aviators, including Richard E. Byrd , Clarence Chamberlin , and Amelia Earhart . Wright Aeronautical merged with
80-510: A Wright engine broke the world's speed record at 163 2–3 miles per hour. In November 1920, an airplane with a 300-horsepower Wright engine came in second place in the first Pulitzer Trophy Race in Long Island, New York . Other planes using Wright engines came in fourth and fifth place in the race. In 1920, Wright produced a canon engine for the Army that allowed shells to be fired through
100-464: A famous New York City -area early airport on western Long Island from which many record flights originated — to Istanbul, Turkey aboard an earlier model of the Wright R-975 -powered CH-300, a Bellanca "Special J-300" high-wing monoplane named Cape Cod , registration NR761W , making it safely to Istanbul nonstop in 49:20 hours, establishing a distance record of 5,011.8 miles (8,065.7 km),
120-455: A vice president of Wright. In 1925, Wright's president, Frederick B. Rentschler , left the company to found Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company ; Lawrance replaced him as company president. Rentschler poached several talented personnel from Wright to join his new firm. Working off Lawrance's designs, Wright Aeronautical developed an air-cooled engine, the Model J Whirlwind series. In 1925,
140-736: The Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company on July 5, 1929, to become the Curtiss-Wright Corporation . Their engine divisions merged in 1931. During World War II , the Paterson plant had 24,000 employees, working in three daily shifts. They made some 75,000 engines for the B-25, the Boeing B-17, and other aircraft. Wright also made engines for 44 commercial airlines and rocket engines for space travel. However,
160-815: The Wright brothers ' original aviation firm, the Wright Company , merged with Glenn L. Martin 's firm, the Glenn L. Martin Company of California , to form the Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation . In September 1917, Martin resigned from Wright-Martin and re-formed an independent Glenn L. Martin Company of Ohio (later of Maryland ). After World War I in 1919, Wright-Martin was renamed Wright Aeronautical. It moved to Paterson, New Jersey in 1919. In February 1919, an airplane with
180-426: 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
200-479: The CH-400 Skyrocket series. Pacemakers were renowned for their long-distance capabilities as well as reliability and weight-lifting attributes, which contributed to their successful operation throughout the world. In 1929, George Haldeman completed the first nonstop flight from New York to Cuba in 12 hours, 56 minutes, flying an early CH-300 (c. 1,310 miles, 101.3 mph). In 1931, a Bellanca fitted with
220-673: The Pacemaker floatplane for General Airways starting in June 1935 during his bushflying days. He and Molson delivered it to its final resting place in the museum on May 30, 1964, after a trip taking five days and just over 30 hours of flight time. The aircraft was reregistered CF-ATN as the original registered a/c was destroyed in an accident in June 1938. One of the first records set by a Bellanca CH-300 series aircraft occurred on July 28–30, 1931, when Russell Norton Boardman (age 33) and John Louis Polando (age 29) flew from Floyd Bennett Field —
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#1732776803143240-523: The RCAF (added to the first order of 29 made in 1929), which used them mainly for aerial photography. In May 1964, Capt. A.G.K.(Gath) Edward, a senior Air Canada pilot, and Ken Molson (the then curator of the Aviation Museum of Canada based at Rockcliffe) traveled to Juneau Alaska to ferry Bellanca Pacemaker NC3005 back to the museum which had obtained the aircraft. Edward had flown a similar model of
260-692: The airplane's propeller. In 1921, a 300 horsepower engine by Wright again came in second place at the Pulitzer Trophy Race in Omaha, Nebraska . In 1921, Wright developed a new six-cylinder dirigible engine with 400 horsepower, testing it for nine months. In 1922, a plane with a Wright H-2 engine won the Mitchell Trophy Race . In May 1923, Wright Aeronautical purchased the Lawrance Aero Engine Company , acquiring Charles Lawrance 's J-1 radial engine . Lawrance became
280-675: 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
300-477: The first known nonstop record flight in aviation history whose distance surpassed either the English (5,000 mi) or metric (8,000 km) mark. On June 3, 1932, Stanislaus F. Hausner, flying a Bellanca CH Pacemaker named Rose Marie , powered by a 300-hp Wright J-6, attempted a transatlantic flight from Floyd Bennett Field, New York, to Warsaw, Poland. The attempt failed when he made a forced landing at sea; he
320-674: 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. Wright Aeronautical Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929)
340-586: The wreckage of the original is kept in Vytautas Magnus War museum, Kaunas, Lithuania. General characteristics Performance Related development Related lists Bellanca 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
360-488: Was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey . It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin . It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the golden age of aviation. Wright engines were used by Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh . In 1929, the company merged with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation to form Curtiss-Wright . In 1916,
380-491: 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. After Giuseppe Mario Bellanca ,
400-550: Was rescued by a British tanker eight days later. On July 15, 1933 6:24 AM two Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius ir Stasys Girėnas flying a heavily modified CH-300 named Lituanica lifted off from Floyd Bennet Field to attempt a non stop transatlantic flight. They successfully crossed the Atlantic, however crashed in the forest near Pszczelnik, Poland. Flying replica of the plane is on display in Lithuanian museum of Aviation,
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