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The Bellanca 31-40 Senior Pacemaker and its derivatives were a family of a six- and eight-seat utility aircraft built in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the late 1930s. They were the final revision of the original late 1920s

Wright-Bellanca WB-2 The sole Wright-Bellanca WB-2, named ''Columbia'', ''Miss Columbia'', and later ''Maple Leaf'', was the second in a series of aircraft designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, initially for Wright Aeronautical then later Columbia Aircraft Corp. D ...

design. The model numbers used by Bellanca in this period reflected the wing area (in this case, 310 square feet) and

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

horsepower (400 and up in this series), each divided by ten. Like their predecessors, these were high-wing braced

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

s with conventional tailwheel undercarriage. A single Senior Skyrocket was bought by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in 1938 for use as a utility transport, designated JE-1. Senior Skyrockets were also built under licence by

Northwest Industries SPAR Aerospace was a Canadian aerospace company. It produced equipment for the Canadian Space Agency to be used in cooperation with NASA's Space Shuttle program, most notably the Canadarm, a remote manipulator system. The company went through a s ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 2007, a single example remains extant - the first Canadian-built aircraft (registration ''CF-DCH''). It is preserved at the

Reynolds-Alberta Museum The Reynolds-Alberta Museum is an agricultural, industrial, and transportation museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada. The museum is situated on an property containing the main museum building, an aviation display hangar, and its storage facility. ...

Variants

* 31-40 Senior Pacemaker -

Wright Cyclone Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled radial piston engines designed by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and used in numerous American aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. Background The Wright Aeronautical Corporation wa ...

engine, 400 hp (298 kW) * 31-42 Senior Pacemaker - Fitted with a redesigned tail surface, accommodation for one pilot and five passengers, powered by a 550-hp (410-kW)

Pratt & Whitney Wasp The Pratt & Whitney Wasp was the civilian name of a family of air-cooled radial piston engines developed in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.Gunston 1989, p.114. The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company (P&W) was founded in 1925 by Frederick B. Rentsc ...

S3H1 radial piston engine. * 31-50 Senior Skyrocket -

Pratt & Whitney Hornet The Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet was a widely used American aircraft engine. Developed by Pratt & Whitney, 2,944 were produced from 1926 through 1942. It first flew in 1927. It was a single-row, 9-cylinder air-cooled radial design. Displacemen ...

engine, 550 hp (410 kW) ** L-11 - One 31-50 impressed into service by the United States Army Air Forces in Alaska in 1942. * 31-55 Senior Skyrocket ** JE-1 - Senior Skyrocket version for US Navy with 570 hp (425 kW) engine ** de Luxe Senior Skyrocket - 31-55 with improved instrumentation and superior interior and exterior finishes, powered by a 525-hp (391-kW)

radial piston engine. ** Model 31-55A - Built under licence in Canada by Northwest Industries.

Operators

; *

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

; * Widerøes Flyveselskap

Specifications (31-55 Senior Skyrocket)

References

* *
aerofiles.com
{{USAF liaison aircraft 1930s United States civil utility aircraft 31-40 High-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1935