Guiseppe Bellanca was a Sicilian immigrant living with
his brother in Brooklyn. He was an engineer whose passion was
aerodynamics; he built an airplane in their backyard and taught
himself to fly. Over several years he designed and built a line of
airplanes, paying close attention to every detail of aerodynamics
and streamlining. Fuselages were airfoil shapes producing lift
(like today's lifting bodies); struts, braces and landing gear
were carefully shaped. He calculated thin-wing airfoils that were
years ahead of their time, carrying test samples from Brooklyn to
Manhattan on the trolley to a wind tunnel at NYU.
His airplanes were strong and light, highly maneuverable and
airworthy. Barnstorming pilots of the day itched to get their
hands on a Bellanca. In the early 1920's Bellancas won more prizes
at air meets than any other type.
Wright contracted with Bellanca to build an airplane tailored
to the J-5C. The resulting machine, the Wright-Bellanca WB-2, is
considered to be a benchmark airplane of American aviation. It was
soon jointly flown by famous aviators Clarence Chamberlin and Bert
Acosta and set new endurance records.
Charles A. Lindbergh was planning his solo flight, New York to
Paris. He tried to buy the Bellanca but was considered to be an
unreliable barnstormer. Instead the plane was sold to a New York
businessman who planned to make the Paris flight together with
Chamberlin as pilot. The plane was then named Columbia.
The Columbia was temporarily grounded over a legal hassle and
lost the chance to be first. It made the flight shortly after
Lindbergh with Berlin as its objective, but landed short because
of bad weather, still outdistancing Lindbergh by about 300 miles.
Lindbergh's story is aviation history. He got his airplane from
Ryan in San Diego, fitted with a J-5C. He was first and alone.
Lindbergh's flight was an international triumph for Wright
Aeronautical. Both Whirlwind engines never missed a beat.
Lindbergh's feat made the J-5C the most popular engine for long
distance air travel. Soon more flights were made to Europe, to the
North and South poles and across the Pacific with Whirlwind power.
Wrights' board of directors was content to rest on its laurels
and bank the profits from burgeoning J-5 sales, but their
engineers were already anxious to build the next radial in the 400
HP range. Reluctant to spend additional investment funds, Wright
lost key engineering people who signed up with a machine shop in
Hartford, CT, Pratt & Whitney, and put them in the engine
business. Their first engine was another jewel, forcing Wright to
compete, a competition that lasted until the introduction of the
jet engine.
The J-5C Whirlwind was the progenitor of all the great radials
that came afterwards.
On the surface, the future of the radial engine looked bright,
but the airframers knew that if speeds were to increase, the
problem of drag had to be addressed. Initially, since the engine
was air-cooled, it seemed correct to place as much of it in the
airstream as possible. The Ryan and Bellanca were built that way.
NACA systematically experimented with ways to reduce radial
engine drag. They developed cowlings tailored to each engine and
airframe that faired with the fuselage and smoothed airflow
through and around the engine. These cowlings were also
rudimentary ramjets, fueled by engine heat, producing a small
thrust to help overcome drag.
Although radial-powered airplanes would never be streamlined as
well as their in-line counterparts, NACA cowlings improved the
performance of radial-powered airplanes sufficiently to insure the
future of the large radials to come.
Charles A. Lindbergh and the J-5C powered Spirit of St. Louis. The
engine was standard except for the replacement of 18 manually
lubed rocker arms grease fittings with automatic spring and
plunger types. Courtesy of National Air and Space Museum
[Reprinted with permission from the Curtiss-Wright
Corporation. By William Wraga]
