1919-1938 — After WWI

Bellanca C-27C "Airbus" — Bellanca C-27C “Airbus”

Before the company, there was the C-27 “Airbus.”

Known as the P-100, P-200, and P-300 “Airbus” and upgraded to six variants of the “Bellanca Aircruiser” in the civilian world, the Bellanca C-27 was a limited production, high-wing workhorse designed with packages that could carry people or cargo and land on land, water, or snow.

The plane came out of a Golden Age of Flight desire to have a plane that could fly non-stop from New York to Rome. Designer Giuseppe Bellanca came up with a plane called the Model K, which never flew. But the distinctive design survived.

Curtiss-Wright R-1820 Cyclone Radial Engine -- a 9-cylinder, supercharged, air-cooled radial engine. A variant of this engine powered the C-27C and the B-17 "Flying Fortress) — Curtiss-Wright R-1820 Cyclone Radial Engine — a 9-cylinder, supercharged, air-cooled radial engine. A variant of this engine powered the C-27C and the B-17 “Flying Fortress)

The United States Army Air Corps used three variants of the C-27. The most popular was the “C” variant, with four built and nine C-27As re-engined with the powerful 750 hp Wright R-1820-25 air-cooled engine.

The plane was extremely efficient. The original P-100 could fly at a cost of around 8 cents per mile, in 1930 figures. It was also reliable and easily re-configurable, making it a popular “bush plane” for rough terrain and wilderness cargo and passenger hauls.

But the plane was doomed, from an American military or commercial standpoint, almost as soon as it came on the market. In 1934, U.S. federal regulations banned single-engined transports and passenger airliners. The plane gained a market in Canada, where it was used for carrying ore from and supplies to remote mines.

Only 23 planes were built, and only two are known to exist today. One famous civilian “Aircruiser,” known as the “Eldorado Radium Silver Express” crashed in Northern Ontario in 1947 after running out of fuel. The plane was beat up that its owner abandoned the plane to the elements. The Western Canada Aviation Museum in Winnipeg is working on a long-term restoration of the plane as of 2013. The museum posted, in 2011, a virtual cockpit tour of the plane.

Eldorado Radium Silver Express undergoing restoration in 2011 (Courtesy of the Western Canada Aviation Museum)

The only intact plane, a 1938 “Aircruiser” is at the Tillamook Air Museum in Oregon.

This beautiful “Flying W” quite nearly became the most famous plane in the world, when Charles Lindbergh and his team came within a hair of purchasing the “Aircruiser” to attempt the famous new York to Paris Flight. Charles Levine, the chairman of Columbia Aircraft Corporation which was the firm brokering for Bellanca, offended Lindbergh when Levine insisted on choosing his own crew to make the historic flight. Lindbergh refused and went on to purchase the “Spirit of St. Louis,” a custom build from Ryan Airline Company.

Lindbergh made the flight, and “Spirit of St. Louis” became world-famous. The “Aircruiser” does have the distinction of being the first plane to fly from New York to Berlin and the first place to cross the Pacific ocean.

Live footage of the C-27 was used in the historic early television cartoon “Clutch Cargo.”

This C-27 should not be confused with the modern Aeritalia G.222/C-27A and Alenia C-27J “Spartan.”

Specifications

General

Crew: one, pilot
Capacity: 16 passengers (with passenger configuration)
Length: 43 ft 4 in
Wingspan: 65 ft 0 in
Height: 11 ft 6 in
Empty weight: 6,072 lb
Engines: One Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 9-cylinder supercharged air-cooled radial engine, 710 hp

Performance

Maximum speed: 165 mph
Range: 700 miles
Ceiling: 22,000 ft

Armament

None.

Essential Reading

Amazon.com Widgets

Online Resources

Wikipedia — Good resource, listing of variants, few photos
Tillamook Air Museum
Western Canada Aviation Museum
bellanca-championclub.com — Great resource, history, links, photos, etc.

Photo Gallery

1938 Bellanca Aircruiser (Courtesy of the Tillamook Air Museum)

Eldorado Radium Silver Express (Courtesy of the Western Canada Aviation Museum)

Curtiss B-2 formation flight over Atlantic City, N.J. S/N 28-399 is in the foreground (tail section only). (U.S. Air Force photo)

The military aviation industry didn’t stop between World War I and World War II, it just didn’t move as quickly in the 1920s as it did in the 1930s and 40s.

Take the 1929 offering from the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, the B-2 “Condor.” Evolving from the Martin NBS-1 bomber, the “Condor” had a short service life as the era of the biplane quickly came to an end in interwar years. But its design isn’t much of a stretch from the twin-engined medium bombers we would see in WWII. Straight-winged with two engines. The B-2 was also a big aircraft for its time, too large for most airplane hangers of the era.

The Army ordered a single XB-2 prototype in 1926, and it flew for the first time in September 1927. The only differences between the “Condor” and the NBS-1 were a thicker airfoil, steel tubing instead of a wood frame, and upgraded engines. Other than that, it was remarkable similar to the older bomber, and that made the B-2 outdated almost as soon as it left the gate.

Still, the bomber performed well and beat out designs from Keystone, Sikorsky, and Atlantic-Fokker. But as the 1930s began, advances in airplane design sank the B-2, which was taken out of service in 1934. None of the 13 planes built are believed to have survived.

After the B-2, Curtiss left the bomber business and went on to produce many varieties of the Hawk pursuit aircraft.

One of the B-2s was built with dual controls so that the co-pilot could take over if need be. The design had its most success as the T-32 “Condor II” airliner, which saw use with the airlines that would become Eastern Air Lines and American Airlines. Forty-five of those were built. The military used five models — two for executive transport, which it called the YC-30, and three for cargo, which were called CT-32.

Oddly enough, the T-32 was again turned into a bomber, the BT-32, which saw use in the 1930s in the Chinese Nationalist Air Force, Colombian Air Force, and Peruvian Air Force.