The Bellanca 19-25 Skyrocket II was a
prototype light airplane 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 territori ...
in the 1970s. Despite its advanced design and exceptionally good performance, it never achieved certification or entered production.
Development
The aircraft was the result of
Giuseppe Bellanca's son,
August Thomas Bellanca. Bellanca formed
Bellanca Aircraft Engineering Inc. company in Scott Depot, West Virginia to develop a new design conceived in 1957. The Skyrocket II was a six-seat, low-wing
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...
monoplane of conventional layout with retractable tricycle landing gear. It was made of
composite material
A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...
s, an advanced feature for its time, and test flying proved it to be fast. In 1975, within months of its first flight, the prototype claimed five world airspeed records for piston aircraft in its class. Three still stand in 2022:
Class C-1c (takeoff weight 1000 to 1750 kg): average 296 miles/hour on a 500-km circuit
Class C-1d (weight 1750 to 3000 kg): average 326 mph on a 500-km circuit and 314 mph on a 1000-km circuit
The aircraft attracted the attention of
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
, which conducted an aerodynamic analysis of the design, investigating natural
laminar flow as a factor of its high performance.
Plans to produce the aircraft commercially were scrapped due to the downturn in the civil aviation market in the United States in the early 1980s. In the mid-1990s, the design was developed into a
kit and sold as the Skyrocket III to help fund a new certification programme. The Skyrocket III features greater speed, payload and range and was re-engineered for modular construction. By 1998 eleven kits had been delivered, but it is uncertain if any were completed and flown.
[Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 120. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. ]
Surviving aircraft
The prototype Skyrocket II is owned by the Delaware Aviation Museum in
Georgetown, Delaware
Georgetown is a town and the county seat of Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town is 6,422, an increase of 38.3% over the previous decade.
Georgetown is part of the Salisbury, Marylan ...
.
Specifications (Skyrocket II)
References
*
*
* "Bellanca SkyRocket back on launch pad" ''Flight International'' April 12, 1996.
* Wynbrandt, James. "AviaBellanca SkyRocket gets Orenda power" ''General Aviation News'' August 7, 1998.
manufacturer's websiteFédération Aéronautique Internationale records page for this aircraft
{{Bellanca aircraft
Skyrocket II
1970s United States civil utility aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1975