HISTORY

After Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, the designer and builder of Italy's first aircraft, came to the United States in 1911, he began to design aircraft for a number of firms including Maryland Pressed Steel Company, Wright Aeronautical Corporation and Columbia Aircraft Company. Bellanca founded his own company, Bellanca Aircraft Corporation of America, in 1927, sited first in Richmond Hill, New York and moving in 1928 to New Castle (Wilmington), Delaware. In the 1920s and 1930s, Bellanca's aircraft of his own design were known for their efficient, low operating cost gaining fame for world record endurance and distance flights. Lindbergh's first choice for his New York to Paris flight was a Bellanca WB-2. The company's insistence on selecting the crew drove Lindbergh to Ryan.

Bellanca remained President and Chairman of the Board from the corporation's inception on the last day of 1927 until he sold the company to L. Albert and Sons in 1954. From that time on, the Bellanca line was part of a succession of companies that maintained the lineage of the original aircraft produced by Bellanca.

Champion Aircraft Corporation was acquired by Bellanca in 1970, which continued to produce most of the Champion designs in production at the time of acquisition. However, American Champion Aircraft (ACA) purchased the type certificate to the Model 7 and Model 8 Champion Line in 1988.

In 2021 the company was reformed as Bellanca Aircraft, Inc and located in Sulphur, Oklahoma. The new company supplies maintenance and aircraft parts, for the legacy Cruisemaster and Viking aircraft.

Source: Wikipedia