Lindy's plane was almost 'Spirit of Mariners Harbor'
Builder wouldn't trust Lindbergh with craft aviator wanted...by, Robin Eisner
The plane Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic on his historic 1927 solo ride might have been nicknamed the Spirit of Mariners Harbor but for a twist of fate.
The story of the historical quirk revolves around an aeronautical inventor from Sciacca, Sicily, named Giuseppe Mario Bellanca, born in 1886, and who came to the United States in 1912. G.M. studied mathematics in Italy but immigrated to America to find his fortune in aviation. Bellanca lived with his brother in Brooklyn and built his first plane, called a parasol monoplane, behind a grocery store. The design became a standard for todays general aviation, according to the National Aviation Hall of Fame, which inducted Bellanca in 1993.
He transported it to a field in Long Island and taught himself to fly, said George Frebert, an aviation historian from Smyrna, Del. In 1914, Bellanca opened a flying school in Garden City. Among his students was Fiorello LaGuardia. Bellanca taught him to fly and LaGuardia gave Bellanca driving lessons in his Model T Ford in exchange, Frebert said. LaGuardia became a World War I bomber pilot and mayor of New York City in 1934.
During the war, Bellanca moved to Maryland and built two airplane trainers, vehicles used to teach pilots how to fly.
The postwar period was called the era of barnstorming in aviation, a time when World War I veterans would travel the country in Army surplus planes and offer flights to people for a fee.
New plane design fueled this fascination with flying and Bellanca in 1922 moved to Omaha, Neb., met his wife, the former Dorothy Brown, and started an airplane company. G.M. built the CF, which broke 13 world records at the time, including one for endurance. The craft now is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museums Garber facility.
But the company did not do very well. Bellanca charged $5,000 per plane while war surplus models sold for mere hundreds of dollars. So looking for work, Bellanca returned to the East Coast, joining the Wright Aero Corp. of Paterson, N.J., in 1924. An engine company known for the Whirlwind engine, Wright hired Bellanca to build airplanes to highlight their engines, Frebert explained.
At Wright, Bellanca built the Wright-Bellanca WB-2, which broke the world endurance record of 50 hours and 33 minutes without refueling, in 1926. It was believed the WB-2 would make the first trans-Atlantic crossing, according to the Aviation Hall of Fame.
During the 1920s, everyone was abuzz about who would be the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. A New York City hotel owner named Raymond Orteig in 1919 offered $25,000 to the person who made the first flight across the Atlantic. By 1926, the money had not been won, although some pilots were killed or injured competing for the prize.
Pushing fame aside, Wright sold the WB-2 to Bellanca and his partner, Charles Levine. Wright opted out of airplane manufacture because it didnt want to alienate customers who purchased engines to build their own planes.
Levine and Bellanca formed a company called Columbia Aircraft Corp. in 1926 and renamed the WB-2 the Columbia. The duo had an office in Manhattan and decided to manufacture planes in a plant, which employed around 60 men, in Mariners Harbor, near Richmond Terrace and Howland Avenue. They built eight planes on Staten Island within a year and modified the original WB-2 in the factory.
Lindbergh believed the WB-2 would be able to get him across the Atlantic and win the prize. In 1926, he went to Wright to buy the WB-2 but the company didnt sell it to him. They thought he was suicidal, wanting to fly by himself, Frebert said. They didnt want an accident with Lindbergh to give their company a bad name, he added.
Lindbergh also met with Bellanca and Levine to try to buy the WB-2 after they formed Columbia. My father thought it was OK to sell to Lindbergh but he wanted a second pilot, which Lindbergh wasnt enthusiastic about, said August Bellanca, Giuseppes son, who lives in Annapolis, Md. Levine also would have sold him the airplane, but only if he could pick a crew, another thing Lindbergh didnt want.
Lindbergh wanted to go solo. Eventually, Ryan Aircraft in San Diego, Calif., built Spirit of St. Louis, named for the nine St. Louis businessmen who financed Lindberghs trip. Ryan was on the verge of bankruptcy so had nothing to lose by building Lindberghs plane if he failed, Frebert said.
The Spirit of St. Louis was very similar in design to the WB-2 except that the fuel tanks were behind the pilot in the Bellanca. Lindbergh had asked Ryan to build a plane akin to the WB-2.
On the historic day when Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field at 7:52 a.m. on May 20, 1927, the WB-2 sat inside a hangar under police guard, Frebert said. Levine had gotten into a dispute with a pilot who was scheduled to make the trans-Atlantic flight. The fight turned into a lawsuit and a judge enjoined the plane from flying. The problems made the front page of the Advance on May 17, 1927.
Lindbergh landed in Le Bourget Field, near Paris, at 10:21 p.m. the next day.
Although Bellanca was disappointed his plane did not make the first Atlantic flight, the WB-2 broke Lindbergh's distance record two weeks later, when Levine and co-pilot Clarence Chamberlin landed in Germany. It was the first cross-oceanic flight with a passenger.
Bellanca, a resident of Hart Avenue, West Brighton, was recognized for his aviation achievements on July 4, 1927, when Time magazine put his picture on the cover. His notoriety brought him to the attention of Italys fascist prime minister Benito Mussolini, and Henry B. du Pont, of the du Pont family known for chemical manufacturing.
Mussolini ordered a plane from Bellanca in December 1927 while Du Pont enticed him to move to New Castle, Del., and build an airplane manufacturing plant there. Bellanca denied he was moving off the Island in a story on the front page of the Advance in November 1927, but eventually he did leave, in early 1928.
Mussolini also invited Bellanca to Italy in the 1930s to build a factory there, according to Bellancas son. Bellanca turned him down, but the federal government refused to give him contracts during World War II because of his alleged ties to Mussolini. Bellanca supplied parts to subcontractors, though, Frebert said.
Later, planes Bellanca built went on to win world records, such as the first nonstop flight across the Pacific in 1931. In 1956, he sold the rights to his planes to Northern Aircraft of Minnesota, which today is called Bellanca Aircraft. His son started Avia Bellanca in 1965.
Only one surviving plane from the Mariners Harbor period remains: Dan Cullman of Washington state is restoring it. The original WB-2 was destroyed by fire Jan. 25, 1934. Bellanca died in 1960.
His son said his father was a modest man who believed in giving credit where it was due. G.M. always noted the name of the inventor of the Wright Whirlwind engine, which fired the Spirit of St. Louis and the WB-2, when telling the story of the trans-Atlantic flight. The engineer was named Laurence, said Bellancas son, who did not know his first name. But Laurences is another story.
Note from Tom: Ms. Eisner's historical account is indeed very factual, but there is one glaring error that should be corrected. The record-breaking flight to Germany was piloted by Clarence Chamberlin...the plane's owner, Charles Levine, was a passenger.
This article is reprinted courtesy of the "Staten Island Advance",
Staten Island Live
and Robin Eisner.
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