Almost Totally Forgotten | Bellanca Aircruiser & 77-140 Bomber [Aircraft Overview #48]
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 เม.ย. 2022
- Today, we're taking a look at the Bellanca Aircruiser, and the Bellanca Model 77-140 bomber. These aircraft had a unique wing design, and boasted some impressive efficiency states, but they have mostly fallen into obscurity.
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Producing these videos is a hobby of mine - and apparently its now a full-time job too! I have a passion for history, and personally own a large collection of books, journals and other texts, and endeavor to do as much research as possible. However if there are any mistakes, please don't hesitate to reach out and correct anything :)
Sources:
Abel.A & Abel.D.W (2004) Bellanca's Golden Age: The Golden Age of Aviation Series
Janes All The Worlds Aircraft 1938 - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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Sorry if my pronunciation is poor in this one, was feeling a little under the weather.
F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Feel free to leave your questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)
Hope you feel better. …. Its tough to do voice over when your not at your best …
Would you consider doing a video discussing the German use of aircraft such as the ju 52 and the bv 138 with those large magnetic rings? What was their use? And how effective were they?
The opening picture made me think of this, the De Havilland dragon planes, the Dragon, Dragon Rapide and Dragonfly.
mate it was brilliant, I'd never heard of it or seen it in passing.
thank you.
you're a star.
This plane has its own inner beauty.
Got to admit, that is a pretty spectacular looking aircraft, especially the twin-engine variant. And it's flying specs, especially carrying capacity and range, are quite impressive for it's period. Thanks for another gem, Rex.
Amen to that!
Indeed. The white bomber looks like the ultimate gasoline-punk.
The specs are utterly impressive by today's standards, too.
@@jmi5969 Like a lot of Rex's, I'd love to see it in a film. Like your description.
I know… I want one!
I live in New Castle, Delaware, which is where Bellanca had their aircraft factory. Only one hanger remains, housing the Bellanca Air Museum. It has a large collection of artifacts, memorabilia, and documents, as well as many airplane models. I even donated a model of the 77-140 Bomber in its land plane version. There is a lot of local lore here in New Castle about Bellanca. I had a supervisor who was a kid in the 1930s and he told a very interesting story about Bellanca flight testing. The main street in New Castle is Delaware Street, which ends at a wharf on the Delaware River from which many of the local lads would fish. Once, one of Bellanca's float planes (don't know if it was one of the 77-140s) landed and pulled up to the wharf. The pilot leaned out and asked if some of the boys wanted to go for an airplane ride. A bunch of the kids jumped in and the plane took off. The boys were asked how much they weighed, then were moved back and forth in the cabin, checking out the plane's center of gravity. Once data had been collected, the plane landed and deposited the boys back on the wharf. I'm sure today the FAA would approve of such testing (LOL). If you want to know more about the Museum, go to- www.friendsofbellanca.org/index.html
Thanks, love in-depth comments like this!
Kids aren't much more valuable than sand bags and will move themselves.
Thanks for this gem of information!
Nope. These days a center of gravity test CGT would cost around 1-5 million dollars.
The float plane version is Gem..
The low W shape really reminds me of pterosaurs walking. So ungainly but kinda cool.
I've been told Bellanca stressed the importance of every surface contributing to lift, which might help explain the unorthodox design of the Aircruiser. Charles Lindbergh wanted to use a Bellanca for his famous solo flight but was not able to arrange satisfactory terms. That's when Ryan Aeronautical stepped in.
I got to work on one of these in the early 70's. They were great bush haulers in Canadian North.
I've seen every plane in use as a bush plane past or present. No history of any use of this ugly duckling in Canada.
@@kennethmorrison7689 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellanca_Aircruiser
@@kennethmorrison7689 Apparently not every one.
@@kennethmorrison7689the western Canadian aviation museum in Winnipeg has one as part of their “bush plane” collection
The twin engine version would have made a remarkable transport aircraft wherever high payload and short take offs are more important than speed. It would easily have been able to rival DHC Otters and even Twin Otters.
They predated the DHC planes. CP air used these air cruisers
Saw a lot of service in the Canadian north. There’s one CF-AWR at the Western Canadian Aviation museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The one pictured at 4:42 CF-BTW is in the Erickson Aircraft collection in Oregon.
Thank you. I would love to go view that beauty....from CA...
The old logo of the Western Canada Aviation Museum featured the Aircruiser forming the "W" in Western.
Wow. This video brought back memories. There was a Bellanca Cruisair bas.ed at the little air port of my hometown, Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA, iin the 1950's.
I grew up in Edmonton and took my flying lessons out of a WWII-era hangar at the Muni. I Would see Beavers, Otters, the odd Norsman, and even the smaller Bellancas. Never saw this spectacle tho.
@@paulslevinsky580 When I was a very young lad, I got a holiday ride (July 1) in CF-BTW, in Trans Air livery.
After I graduated, and got my pilots license, my next door neighbour G. 'Frying Pan' Founier, rebuilt CF-BTW, from memory, as no plans where still existing, for a family in Gimli MB. Almost 10 years later he started on CF-AWR, I took pictures of part of that, and turned the negatives over to him, then he gave it, and the film, over to Royal Western Canadian Aviation Museum to finish, they are still in the works, as they had so much on the go, with moving hangers, a time or two, before the had their new establishment built.
I hope to see it fly again, before I pass away.
Best wishes from Northern Manitoba.
As an addition, I believe it was, BTW had an 8" dia. hitching ring, Port side, near the front of the cabin, to transport horses, to the early mining camps.
@@carlthor91 Wow!!! Hope they had tranquilizers
Bellanca was resurrected and made aircraft in the late 50's to mid 70's. In the late 70's I flew a 4 seat Bellanca Super Viking 30-A. It was a great civil aircraft; they are still around although less than 2,000 were made in Minnesota.
A demi-biplane! The struts become the wing, reducing drag. Interesting compromise between a monoplane and a biplane.
all that structure may decrease drag, but it has the side effect of increasing the plane’s mass.
Enough knowledge to be wrong is what you have LOL, as that “mass” you speak of is a lifting surface 😉
A very interesting aircraft. This is the first I have ever heard of one. The shape of the aircraft, is rather fascinating.
Don't know if you remember the children's cartoon " Clutch Cargo' back in the early 1960's but he flew around in a Bellanca Airbus on his adventures on TV.
…with his pals Spinner and Paddlefoot.
great series! My grandfather flew in the single engined Bellanca, and it seemed to hold a pretty special place. he would never have been the pilot, but he did fly and he knew most of the bush pilots in Western Canada in the late 30’s. I’d never seen one until this video.
two airplanes I really hope you might cover are by Vickers. Those are the Vedette and the Viking. He flew in both, and had hair raising stories about crossing the prairies, often in terrible conditions. These included having to get out of the observer cockpit, climb onto the wing, insert the iron crank into the side of the radial engine, and spin it up, then engage a clutch to get it going. While in flight. More than once. I think that was the Vedette. Apparently it had almost no glide and lousy climb and poor ceiling, so a stalled engine usually marked a fairly brief period of opportunity to sort things out. Otherwise, it was a dead stick landing on a lake in the back country of Northern Manitoba, and hope help came, which also happened. the upshot is, I think they were both fairly lousy planes, but they were integral to a certain period of Canadian aviation.
Wow this design language is amazing. I'd love to see a modern take on this idea.
Check out the C2 Greyhound. I think there’s some design similarities there. On the other hand the An-2 looks more like it.
Wow, Bellanca was a spectacular aircraft creator; I love the Viking and Cruisair designs, and now I have another Bellanca design to love!
I had the opportunity to see the Aircruiser restored and now on display at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada - I had never seen anything like it before, I was amazed.
WOW!! You dug up several photos I never came across in my research, very nice! Especially the interior photos inside the 77-140, as well as the enclosed nose gunner photo. And, if I may, you make me feel good about my information I compiled years ago just for my own interest in the aircraft.
The example at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada is nearly completely assembled, ready for the museum opening at the end of May.
Indeed. I am looking forward to seeing this at the opening.
I’m going to go ahead and Congratulate our Author on reaching 50K subscribers… ..! And thanks …those really are beautiful planes
Hear hear.
Built very close to where I live; one of the old hangers is still there, as well as a small museum and a bit of the airfield.
New castle, Delaware
Those of us who grew up watching the Synchro-Vox (meaning film footage of an actual, talking human mouth was superimposed over a static facial image) cartoon titled "Clutch Cargo" may recall that the title character often flew a Bellanca Aircruiser as he and his boy pal Spinner and dachshund Paddlefoot sought adventure in remote localities around the globe. Thank you for this very fine presentation on the Bellanca Aircruiser/C-27 airplane and the two-engined bomber that evolved from it.
I’ve seen the Cruiser in the Ericsson collection at Madras airport. The size and shape is a sight to behold for an airplane of the 30’s.
Anybody else getting a pterodactyl vibe off the bomber? From just the lower wing and landing gear.
Yes. :D
i have a small scale model of this plane that I built a couple of years ago, from a scratch plan. Nice looking addition to my collection.
Guiseppe Bellanca was a remarkable designer who seemed to have an intuitive understanding of aircraft function in design. In 1927 Charles Lindbergh was seriously considering Bellanca's single-engine plane before he finally settled on the Ryan Airlines designed "NYP." A short time after Lindbergh had completed his nonstop New York to Paris flight, that same Bellanca flew across with a two-man crew. In the late 1940's Bellanca marketed (with limited success) his pretty "Junior" private plane, also the sleek "Cruisair" and "Cruisemaster" single-engine private/business airplanes. In the late 1960's Bellanca Aircraft was resurrected and updated the Cruisemaster, with good success, to become the "Viking" and "Turbo-Viking" aircraft. The last Bellanca aircraft I know of were the strikingly stretchy T-tailed "Aires" and "Aires 250," produced with only limited success in the 1970's. Bellanca's designs were ever tech-forward and utterly unique.
Colombian here, i didn't know about this aircraf ever being operated here, nor expected to. I knew about some modified seversky p-35s but this was quite a twist
Giuseppe Bellanca's aircraft achieved numerous endurance and efficiency records, and his plane (WB-2) Columbia was Charles Lindbergh's first choice for a Trans-Atlantic crossing. Lindbergh was unable to secure the plane, but 2 weeks after Lindbergh's Trans-Atlantic flight Columbia was flown non-stop from New York to Berlin (3,911 miles). In 1931, Bellanca's Miss Veedol was the first plane to fly non-stop across the Pacific from Japan to Washington State (4,500 miles).
Important information. Thanks
Your sarcasm never ceases to amaze me. Keep it up
Quite beautiful actually. When these came out they must have looked like they were from 100 years in the future
I absolutely love these. I don't care what anybody says. These are just beautiful.
I was always fascinated by the Bellanca Aircruiser and its nice there are two still around. The Aircruiser's DNA was still evident in later Bellanca designs, like the post-war light single engine Cruiser (am I correct?) and the 1970's Bellanca Viking. A local ski hill operator showed his very low hours ( 8-9 hours) new toy to us, Hmmm new car- I mean airplane smell.
Excellent! Thank you for bringing these aircraft back to light.
With a long range and fuel efficiency, would have made a nice submarine hunter.
Cheers Rex! Love your videos. I grew up geeking out over planes and this is just my kind of content.
Love these videos. Comprehenxive coverage of almost unknown types which is most welcome.
I've heard of the Bellancas, but knew next to zero about them so it's great to get some detailed information (despite the paucity of source material.) My first thought is: considering how many under-performers came along during the 20s and 30s it's nice to see an example that bucks that trend! It's a shame the maritime bomber/patrol model didn't pass muster with the USN, but I'm guessing Consolidated had that market sewed up by that time.
Adds a bit of lift, a bit of stability, a bit of strength, and a huge amount of drag.
Always worth watching, and I like your humor.
I have loved anything 'Aviation' for 70 of my 80 years and yours is tops. Me and your planes are about the same age !
I like the shorter videos unless you just have to much material.
The twin engined version looks like an animated character out of a 1930s kid's story cartoon.
superb video well organized highly informative excellent photos of the plane and its variants. Thank You.
I appreciate the content of what you do, Rex!
(Only recently found your channel, am slowly working through the back log)
One thing that struck me about the bomber, especially on floats, is that it could've made a hell of a sub hunter for it's day.
Someone needs to recreate this but with a modern engine. The fuel efficiency combined with the new range the engine offers would be insane.
Awesome research for this video! 👏
Your output is superb: excellent quality and interesting presentation. Also SO MUCH OF IT! You must work very hard on this.
Joseph Juptner's History of US Civil Aircraft series of books goes into great detail on the complete line of Bellanca aircraft development. His books also cover all aircraft both known and obscure that received an ATC number from post WW1 up to the 1950s. I suggest you check them out, if you haven't already.
One of these aircraft is hangared in Madras, Oregon, and still flies with the Erickson Aircraft Collection.
I found your channel a few days ago. I'm glad I did, great content my friend.
Such an interesting video, thank you for your work. Peace be unto you.
I have never been interested in airplanes but I love these videos they are so good!
Silver red air cruiser looked fantastic. The restoration photo showing all of the structure was fascinating as well.
That art deco bomber looks amazing
It's interesting seeing this and then seeing the X-66 experimental airliner. Some design concepts like the lifting wing struts seem to have come full circle.
Thanks for this. That wing configuration has seemed like a good design for an alt history late interwar design. The asymmetric airflow over the lower wing on the 2-engine version would offer superb low-speed lift for short takeoff. I hadn't realized anyone had made such an aircraft.
And Thanks Again! Great History! :D
I was just at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada in Winnipeg on Monday August 1st 2022 and the individual aircraft from the Eldorado mine is on display there. Dark green metallic paint with gold lettering.
OMG- What BEAUTIFUL aircraft. Nothing follows...
Always enjoy your content. It must take you an age to collate all this information and so often too.
I would contribute, but sadly without a job, so unable due to financial constraints.
I can only say your hard work is much appreciated.
Great channel!
Rex,
Thanks for digging up another interesting aircraft. I knew of the Bellanca Viking from the 1970s, but had no idea the company built these unique biplanes from the 1930s. Thanks
Great video of a plane with awesome design and flight performance. One funny point in the video is around 6:40, where you mention the wing span of 77 feet, just in the moment when the plan shows 76 feet 🙂
Great presentation as always, my wife and love your style and look foreword to each new video!
Even the fuselage is designed to provide lift. No to shabby for the 1930s.
Great video!
The Bellanca at RAMWC (Winnipeg, Manitoba) is now complete and on display in the museum's new building.
I was allowed to enter and examine the Bellanca Aircruiser in Medcord Oregon when the the Erickson collection was based there. Beautiful airplane. If it looks good? It will fly good. Said some famous person somewhere at some time. It was set up to haul either horses or mules at that time. There was a large strong wooden bar to attach the the reins of the animals to for the flight. Although I was biased. I owned a Bellanca 300 HP Lycoming Viking personal airplane that I really enjoyed. I flew it all around the US. I wouldn't have wanted to have been the pilot or horse/mule wrangler when the Aircruiser was being flown
So interesting. Thank you. Happy landings......
Great job. Never even new those plane existed
Good info, thanks!…..I’ve never heard of these Bellanca aircraft.
Excellent.
this is i think the third time Edmonton (my city) has come up on your channel and its cool cause its not very often you find Edmonton on the internet unless you're looking for it
That was excellent! They also played with Radium ore in Washington Pa. They used a ride on a streetcar to haul it around!
In our recent reopened aviation museum in Winnipeg we have the Eldorado Express. It mentioned the uranium it carried was used for Manhattan Project. I have a picture if you want.
Great video! You should take a look at the Staggerwings for a future video.
For all the info on bellanca aircraft. Visit the friends of bellanca muesum in New castle Delaware. It is in the original hangar used by the factory.
Thanks for all of your excellent research and video,amazing.....Shoe🇺🇸
Thanks! Such an odd but capable aircraft
I have in my possession a picture of my grandfather (RCAF pilot) standing in the main cargo door of an unidentified aircraft during WWII. As an aviation buff and pilot it drove me crazy for years that I couldn't figure out what aircraft it was. Then one day I ran across an article on Aircruisers. I did some research and figured out that he must be standing in the doorway of an Aircruiser. I sent my picture to the air museum in Canada that is restoring "Radium Express." They concluded that due to the door configuration, the aircraft in my picture is the only other Aircruiser left CF-BTW which is shown in the video at 4:46. It now resides in the Erickson museum. It brought a smile to my face that the old bird is still out there.
1st airplane that could carry its own weight in cargo.
that bomber is gorgeous
That's nice looking aircraft
I got to see the air cruiser fly into the hood river fly-in a few years ago. It was quite a sight to see, but didn’t know the history behind it. Very interesting!
Thanks!
Hmm , it just looks far to Busy in its looks as a Float plane it looks great ..Good one Rex.
Cool, thanks
The between-wars Bellanca's are some of my favorite aircraft. The first aircraft to fly from Tokyo to Seattle (well, Wenatchee) was a Bellanca, Lindburgh originally wanted a Bellanca for the trans-Atlantic flight. In my mind some of the loveliest aircraft of the era . . .
Clutch Cargo's airplane!
A fascinating insight to an aeroplane type which is totally new to me. The name caught my attention, because I I used to fly an aeroplane called the Victa Airtourer. I gained aerobatic certification (endorsement), it was a two-seater low wing monoplane powered by a flat four cylinder Lycooming 280. If you can find one - it would make an interesting video. The Airtourer was a beautifully responsive craft to fly - but had a slow rate of climb, and the flaps and ailerons worked as a single unit. Never use full flap configuration until you are definitely intend to land very shortl!
Very cool aircraft!
Not sure if these are biplanes, or if they are just really large support strut monoplanes.
another awesome forgotten aircraft. could you make a video on the curtiss hawk or falcon series?
nice video
Great looking plane.
To my eye definitely no ugly duckling
Why do I feel this is why the Corsair had gull wings
Great Video... Kinda Special Planes... Just Bad Timing for Sales. Thanks for Sharing
Thank you
Looks good in modern photographs
This is the first I've heard of the 77-140 and I already love it!
A shame it didn't see much use, it looks like it could have been quite the useful light transport or maritime patrol aircraft.
Erickson Aircraft Collection in Madras Oregon has one of those on display. The last one still in flyable condition I believe.