Wright-Bellanca WB-1

Last updated
WB-1
Wright-Bellanca WB-1 left side L'Aeronautique March,1927.jpg
RoleCabin monoplane
National origin United States
ManufacturerWright-Bellanca [1]
Designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca
First flightSeptember 1925
Number built1

The Wright-Bellanca WB-1 was designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca for the Wright Aeronautical corporation for use in record-breaking flights. [2]

Contents

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 , [7] Aerofiles [8]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Related development

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References

  1. "Air and Space Giuseppe M. Bellanca Collection". Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  2. Jackson, Joe (30 April 2013). Atlantic fever : Lindbergh, his competitors, and the race to cross the Atlantic (First Picadorition ed.). Picador. p.  127. ISBN   978-1250033307.
  3. "Part 1". Pilot. 13: 35.
  4. Smyth, Ross (1 September 1997). The Lindbergh of Canada : the Erroll Boyd story. General Store Pub. p. 63. ISBN   978-1896182612.
  5. Gough, Michael (3 May 2013). The Pulitzer air races : American aviation and speed supremacy, 1920-1925. McFarland & Company. p. 175. ISBN   978-0786471003.
  6. Spenser, Jay P. (17 June 1982). Bellanca C.F. : the emergence of the cabin monoplane in the United States. Published for the National Air and Space Museum by the Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 45. ISBN   978-0874748819.
  7. "Air and Space". Air Pictorial. 1975.
  8. Eckland, K.O. "Wright". aerofiles.com. Retrieved 13 November 2018.