Bellanca in WWII?

[shrike]

Can anyone shed some light on what Bellanca (either the company or the man) did from 1941 to 1945?

After the YO-50 liaison prototype, I can't find anything until post-war civilian production began. Anyone know what was happening during the war years?
Google is usually my friend, but it's been kinda closed-lipped about this one.

Last edited by shrike on Thu Apr 17, 2014 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[turretguy]

According to my research, Bellanca tried to extract a license fee for every Corsair built during the war. Bellanca alleged that Vought had infringed upon its 1935 patent for an inverted gull-wing aircraft. Vought replied that there were designs that pre-dated the 1935 patent. It went back and forth between the two companies and eventually the Bureau of Aeronautics was asked to mediate the dispute. BuAer sided with Vought and the matter was closed. I have the original correspondence somewhere if you need it.

That's one thing they were doing during the war...
Nick

Last edited by turretguy on Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[shrike]

Nice to know Giuseppe was following in the Orville and Wilbur's footsteps.

Aside from legal briefs, did they produce anything? components? sub-contracts? Just seems like a historical black hole to the casually curious.

[Forgotten Field]

Only two things to add:

1. Bellanca did jobbing for Glenn L Martin. I have a forging for the Mars beaching gear manufactured by them.

2. Bellanca made drawings (at least) for a large single engine dive bomber. These were fished out of the trash by a collector and they exist somewhere but I can't remember who owns them.

I would imagine that due to the size of the factory (it was really small) that they did mostly jobbing during the war. I'd look in my 1944 Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce Aircraft Yearbook but it is away at the hangar. That's the first place I'd look for information on wartime production by any of the manufacturers.

[turretguy]

Shrike,
I thought the company only made subassemblies for other manufacturers, like Fairchild, during the war.
Nick

[shrike]

Thanks!

The descendent company, AviaBellanca, has no website to speak of, and the usual suspects (Wikipedia, Aerofiles etc) just show a blank spot with production of the Cruisair starting back up as if nothing had happened in the previous five years.

[Randy Wilson]

The book Bellanca's Golden Age by Alan Abel and Drina Welch Abel has a short chapter on the company's "World War II Effort". It seems that Bellanca himself left to form an aviation department for Higgins Industries in New Orleans where he worked on the design of the Higgins-Bellanca Cargo Transport, which was designed to, among other things, transport a heavy tank and deliver it by parachute. After a couple of years the contract was cancelled.

The same source lists Bellanca as one of three companies building the Fairchild-designed AT-21 Gunnery Crew Trainer. It also say they built gun turrets for the PBM-3 and MARS seaplanes and "a large array of other important equipment required to win the war. Other World War II aircraft types flying Bellanca-built components and equipment also included the C-46, B-26, Helldiver, B-24, C-109 and the A-30."

Below is a link to a site with more info on the transport design.
http://retromechanix.com/higgins-bellanca-cargo-model-39-60-1944/

Randy

[Cvairwerks]

Bellanca built 39 AT-21-BL's for Fairchild in 1944. Mine is one of them.