Wright-Bellanca WB-1
| WB-1 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Cabin monoplane |
|---|---|
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Wright-Bellanca[1] |
| Designer | Giuseppe Mario Bellanca |
| First flight | September 1925 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Wright-Bellanca WB-1 was designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca for the Wright Aeronautical corporation for use in record-breaking flights.[2]
Development
The WB-1 was a high-winged monoplane with conventional landing gear and all-wood construction. The landing gear fairings were constructed to extend into wheel pants.[3][4]
Operational history
The WB-1 was demonstrated at the 1925 Pulitzer Prize Air Races in New York. In the first day's flights, the WB-1 clocked in 121.8 mph in a closed course race. On day two, the WB-1 won in a payload versus hp and speed efficiency contest, beating a Curtiss Oriole and Sikorsky S-31. In 1926, pilot Fred Becker crashed the overloaded aircraft in a world-record endurance attempt. The aircraft cartwheeled and broke up on a landing attempt.[5][6]
Specifications (WB-1)
Data from Air and Space, Air Pictorial 1975
General characteristics
- Crew: 1
- Capacity: 5
- Wingspan: 45 ft (14 m)
- Powerplant: 1 × Wright J-4 Whirlwind 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 200 hp (150 kW)
- Propellers: 2-bladed
Performance
See also
- Related development
References
- ↑ "Air and Space Guseppe M. Bellanca Collection". Retrieved 29 September 2013.
- ↑ Joe Jackson. Atlantic Fever: Lindbergh, His Competitors, and the Race to Cross the Atlantic. p. 127.
- ↑ AOPA Pilot Volume 13, Part 1: 35. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Ross Smyth. The Lindbergh of Canada: The Erroll Boyd Story. p. 63.
- ↑ Michael Gough. The Pulitzer Air Races: American Aviation and Speed Supremacy, 1920-1925. p. 175.
- ↑ Jay P. Spenser. Bellanca C.F.the emergence of the cabin monoplane in the United States. p. 45.