The Bellanca CE was the first aircraft designed for the Maryland Pressed Steel Company, by the aircraft designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca. The aircraft was also called the Bellanca C.E. or the "CE Tractor Biplane".
Development
In 1916, the
Maryland Pressed Steel Company
Maryland Pressed Steel Company was an American aircraft manufacturer of the Bellanca CD, and CE aircraft.
The New York & Hagerstown Metal Stamping Co manufactured arms for the British and was reorganized into the Maryland Pressed Steel Company ...
hired Giuseppe Mario Bellanca to develop a two-seat biplane with intention to sell examples to the government during the war effort.
The two-seat plane was built at the Pope Avenue factory in
Hagerstown, Maryland.
Bellanca had previously designed his own parasol aircraft in Sicily, bring the examples to New York to test fly. The Bellanca Aeroplane Company and Flying School was formed in 1911 at Mineola Long Island New York, where Bellanca taught the mayor,
Fiorello LaGuardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City from ...
.
Design
The Bellanca CE was a two-seat biplane using ailerons for roll control rather than wing warping of its predecessor.
Operational history
Although an example was built, the aircraft did not go into full production after the end of World War I brought a halt to new contracts. The aircraft was purchased in 1919 by a wartime flying instructor named
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin
Clarence Duncan Chamberlin (November 11, 1893 – October 31, 1976) was an American pioneer of aviation, being the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to the European mainland, while carrying the firs ...
. Chamberlin flew the C.E. to
Glen Falls, New York
Glens Falls is a City (New York), city in Warren County, New York, Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls, New York metropolitan area, Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,7 ...
commenting that Bellanca gave very conservative estimates of its performance and did not exaggerate its capabilities. Bellanca would remain friends with Chamberlin, hiring him later as his chief test pilot, and eventually setting a transcontinental air record in the Bellanca designed
Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Columbia
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 ...
. One Maryland Pressed Steel employee, Lewis E. Reisner, went on to form
Reisner Aero Service Company in Hagerstown, which eventually became the
Kreider Reisner Aircraft Company.
Variants
The prototype aircraft, was the
Bellanca CD, was built with a 35 hp engine.
Specifications Bellanca CE
Notes
{{Bellanca
Aviation in Maryland