| Type | Aeronautics |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aircraft manufacturing and design |
| Founded | 1927 (adopted current name in 1983) |
| Headquarters | Alexandria, MN |
| Key people | Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, Founder |
| Website | Alexandria Aircraft website |
AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation is 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.
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After Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, the designer and builder of Italy's first aircraft, came to the United States in 1911, he began to design aircraft for a number of firms including Maryland Pressed Steel Company, Wright Aeronautical Corporation and Columbia Aircraft Company. 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 efficient, 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.[1]
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.[2]
First Flight - Model / Military number - Name
1922: Roos-Bellanca Aircraft is formed in Omaha
1923: Roos-Bellanca merges with Wright Aeronautical to form Wright-Bellanca.
1927: Giuseppe Bellanca acquires the rights to the WB-2 Columbia and forms the Columbia Aircraft Division of Bellanca Aircraft.
1955: Bellanca Aircraft sold to Northern Aircraft (later named Downer then International Aircraft or Inter-Air) of Alexandria, Minnesota.
1967: Bellanca name resurfaces as Bellanca Sales, a subsidiary of Miller Flying Service of Inter-Air.
1970: Bellanca Sales acquires Champion Aircraft and changes name to Bellanca Aircraft
1978: Bellanca Aircraft becomes a subsidiary of Anderson Greenwood
1982: Bellanca Aircraft assets sold to Viking Aviation and Champion Aircraft.
2002: Viking assets acquired by Alexandria Aircraft LLC (consortium of Weber's Aero Repair and four Bellanca employees).
while...
1968: Giuseppe Bellanca and son August restart the original Bellanca company.
1983: This new company becomes AviaBellanca Aircraft
2010: August Bellanca died of chemotherapy complications.
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