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Wright-Bellanca WB-1

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WB-1
Role Cabin monoplaneType of aircraft
National origin United States
Manufacturer Wright-Bellanca
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.

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.

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.

Specifications (WB-1)

Data from , Aerofiles

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Capacity: 5 (1,440 lb (650 kg))
  • Length: 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
  • 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

  • Maximum speed: 115 kn (132 mph, 212 km/h)
  • Cruise speed: 87 kn (100 mph, 160 km/h)
  • Stall speed: 39 kn (45 mph, 72 km/h)

See also

Related development

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.


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