Bellanca CH-300

The Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker was a six-seat utility aircraft, built primarily in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a development of the Bellanca CH-200, fitted with a more powerful engine and, like the CH-200, soon became renowned for its long-distance endurance.

Design and development

Bellanca further developed the earlier CH-200 to create the CH-300 Pacemaker. The CH-300 was a conventional, high-wing braced monoplane with fixed tailwheel undercarriage. Like other Bellanca aircraft of the period, it featured "flying struts". While the CH-200 was powered by 220 hp Wright J-5 engines, the CH-300 series Pacemakers were powered by 300 hp Wright J-6s. Late in the series, some -300s were fitted with 420 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasps, leading to the CH-400 Skyrocket series.

Operational history

Pacemakers were renowned for their long-distance capabilities as well as reliability and weight-lifting attributes, which contributed to their successful operation throughout the world. In 1929, George Haldeman completed the first nonstop flight from New York to Cuba in 12 hours, 56 minutes, flying an early CH-300 (c. 1,310 miles, 101.3 mph). In 1931, a Bellanca fitted with a Packard DR-980 diesel, piloted by Walter Lees and Frederick Brossy, set a record for staying aloft for 84 hours and 33 minutes without being refuelled. This record was not broken until 55 years later.

In Alaska and the Canadian bush, Bellancas were very popular. Canadian-operated Bellancas were initially imported from the United States, but later, six were built by Canadian Vickers in Montreal and delivered to the RCAF (added to the first order of 29 made in 1929), which used them mainly for aerial photography.

In May 1964, Capt. A.G.K.(Gath) Edward, a senior Air Canada pilot, and Ken Molson (the then curator of the Aviation Museum of Canada based at Rockcliffe) traveled to Juneau Alaska to ferry Bellanca Pacemaker NC3005 back to the museum which had obtained the aircraft. Edward had flown a similar model of the Pacemaker floatplane for General Airways starting in June 1935 during his bushflying days. He and Molson delivered it to its final resting place in the museum on May 30, 1964, after a trip taking five days and just over 30 hours of flight time. The aircraft was reregistered CF-ATN as the original registered a/c was destroyed in an accident in June 1938.

Record attempts

One of the first records set by a Bellanca CH-300 series aircraft occurred on July 28–30, 1931, when Russell Norton Boardman (age 33) and John Louis Polando (age 29) flew from Floyd Bennett Field — a famous New York City-area early airport on western Long Island from which many record flights originated — to Yeşilköy Airport (present day Atatürk Airport), Istanbul, Turkey aboard an earlier model of the Wright R-975-powered CH-300, a Bellanca "Special J-300" high-wing monoplane named ''Cape Cod'', registration ''NR761W'', making it safely to Istanbul nonstop in 49:20 hours, establishing a distance record of , the first known nonstop record flight in aviation history whose distance surpassed either the English (5,000 mi) or metric (8,000 km) mark.

On June 3, 1932, Stanislaus F. Hausner, flying a Bellanca CH Pacemaker named ''Rose Marie'', powered by a 300-hp Wright J-6, attempted a transatlantic flight from Floyd Bennett Field, New York, to Warsaw, Poland. The attempt failed when he made a forced landing at sea; he was rescued by a British tanker eight days later.

On July 15, 1933 6:24 AM two Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas flying a heavily modified CH-300 named Lituanica lifted off from Floyd Bennett Field to attempt a non stop transatlantic flight to Kaunas, Lithuania. They successfully crossed the Atlantic, however crashed in the forest near Pszczelnik, Poland. A flying replica of the plane is on display in Lithuanian museum of Aviation, while the wreckage of the original is kept in Vytautas Magnus War museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Variants

*CH-300W – CH-300 converted to use a Pratt & Whitney R-985 engine (one converted)"Bellanca."
''Aerofiles.'' Retrieved: December 28, 2009.
*300-W – Built with a Pratt & Whitney R-985 engine (seven built)
*PM-300 Pacemaker Freighter – Cargo version (two built)

Operators

;
: Austin Airways
: Canadian Airways
:Royal Canadian Air Force (13)
: Starratt Airways

;
: TACA Airlines

;
: Aeronaves de Mexico

;
: Widerøes Flyveselskap

;
:Civil Aeronautics Authority (5+)
:Department Of Commerce
: Inter-Island Airways (Hawaiian Airlines)
: Star Air Service
:Wien Air Alaska

Surviving aircraft

;Canada
* 133 – CH-300 airworthy with Wright Holdco in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories. Bought by former President of Republic of Lithuania in 2020.
* 181 – CH-300 on static display at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. It was formerly operated by Alaska Coastal Airlines.

;United States
* 150 – CH-300 airworthy with Frederick W. Patterson III in American Canyon, California.
* 154 – CH-300 airworthy with Hawaiian Airlines in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was acquired new in 1929 by Inter-Island Airways (renamed Hawaiian Airlines in 1941) and used for sightseeing over Oahu for two years before being sold in 1933. Acquired from an aviation enthusiast in Oregon in early 2009, the aircraft was restored at the Port Townsend Aero Museum and was unveiled at Honolulu International Airport later that year.
* 187 – CH-300 on static display at the Shannon Air Museum in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was previously on display at the Virginia Aviation Museum and has been converted to represent the Bellanca WB-2 ''Columbia''.

Specifications

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Szurovy, Geza. ''Bushplanes''. St. Paul, Minnesota: Zenith Press, 2004. .
* Taylor, Michael J.H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. London: Studio Editions, 1989, p. 149.

External links

aerofiles.com

Canada Aviation Museum website

{{Aircraft manufactured in Canada

1920s United States civil utility aircraft
CH-300
High-wing aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1929
Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear
Single-engined piston aircraft