Wright-Bellanca WB-1

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

WB-1
Role Cabin monoplane
National origin United States
Manufacturer Wright-Bellanca[1]
Designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca
First flight September 1925
Number built 1

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

  • 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)
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See also

Related development

  • Columbia (WB-2)

References
  1. "Air and Space Guseppe M. Bellanca Collection". 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.). 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. 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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