Biographical Sketches

GIUSEPPE MARIO BELLANCA

Born: March 19, 1886    In: Sciacca, Sicily
Died: December 26, 1960    In: New York City, NY

Educated in engineering in Milan. In 1908, with no experience in aeronautics, he and two friends built and flew an airplane of his design. He moved with his family to Brooklyn in 1912, and by early the next year, he was teaching himself to fly in earnest at the Garden City Aerodrome, in a monoplane he had designed and built in his family’s basement.

In 1914, Bellanca opened a flying school at the airfield, where one of his students was Fiorello LaGuardia, the future mayor of New York City. In 1920, he created the CF, an airliner that could carry four passengers in an enclosed cabin. The CF entered three major performance contests in 1922, won them all, and earned a reputation as "the world’s best airplane." Unfortunately, the market was then glutted with surplus WW1 airplanes, and Bellanca couldn’t sell his marvels. He was hampered, as well, by a lack of capital -- most of his backers were restaurateurs, waiters, and bakers from Brooklyn’s Italian neighborhoods.

In 1924, in partnership with an engine manufacturer, Bellanca designed the WB-1, a cabin airliner that also won speed and performance contests. He followed this with the WB-2, an improved model, but his partner wasn’t interested in producing it, and the WB-2 was eventually put up for sale. Bellanca hoped to sell the plane to the pilot who most wanted it, Charles Lindbergh, who thought the WB-2 was the best plane for his planned solo flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh wrote a check for $15,000, but when Bellanca’s partner refused to sell the plane unless their company could select the pilot, a very annoyed Lindbergh withdrew his check and went instead to Ryan in San Diego. Lindbergh named his new monoplane The Spirit of St Louis, and when it and not the WB-2 carried him to Paris, Bellanca was condemned to be a footnote in the history of aviation.

A Bellanca aircraft, Miss Veedol, did make the first non-stop flight across the Pacific in 1931, and in the years that followed, Bellancas set many records for speed and endurance. But their high quality meant they weren’t well suited for mass production. However, admirers of the marque have restored and kept flying a few of the airplanes Bellanca designed and built.

Enshrined in National Aviation Hall of Fame 1993.

REFERENCES:
Morehouse Early Pioneers

Denotes an individual known to have soloed an aircraft prior to December 16, 1917, whether they were members of the "Early Birds of Aviation" Organization or not.