Wright-Bellanca WB-2
| Wright-Bellanca WB-2 | |
|---|---|
 Bellanca WB-2 "Columbia", 1927 |
|
| Type: | Light aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
1926 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
The Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia is a six-seat transport aircraft designed by the aircraft designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca in 1926. The abbreviation WB stands for Wright-Bellanca and refers to the Wright Aeronautical company , for which Bellanca was active at the time.
This aircraft has a wingspan of 14 m and a top speed of 180 km / h. The range of the WB-2 was an enormous 8000 km for that time. Only one copy of the WB-2 was built. The plans for the aircraft were sold to multimillionaire Charles A. Levine (1897-1891), who founded the Columbia Aircraft Corporation for the production of the successor Bellanca CH-200 . Through this collaboration, the WB-2 got its name suffix "Columbia".
On June 4, 1927, the WB-2 took off on a transatlantic flight to Europe with Clarence Chamberlin as the pilot and Charles A. Levine as the passenger. The fact that Levine was not a pilot made him the first passenger to cross the Atlantic. The destination of this flight was originally Berlin, but due to a lack of fuel, this undertaking ended at Eisleben , 160 km southwest of Berlin. This 6285 km flight took 42 hours and 45 minutes and broke the record set by Charles Lindbergh by 507 km, 9 hours and 45 minutes.
In 1928 the “Columbia” made the first non-stop flight between New York City and Havana , flown by Wilmer Stultz with Mabel Boll as a passenger.
Renamed "Maple Leaf", the WB-2 was destroyed on January 25, 1934 by a fire in a hangar on the premises of the Bellanca company in New Castle , Delaware .
In Berlin, the Columbiadamm at Tempelhof Airport is named after the machine.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| Seats | 6th |
| length | 8.46 m |
| span | 14.12 m |
| Wing area | 25.3 m² |
| height | 2.5 m |
| Empty mass | 728 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 2450 kg |
| drive | a radial engine Wright J-5C Whirlwind , 220 HP (165 kW) |
| Top speed | 203 km / h |
| Cruising speed | 169 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 3962 m |
| Range | 8000 km |
