Bellanca Skyrocket

I saw an antique yesterday and ran the N number as soon as I got home. The FAA has it registered as a 1929 Bellanca Pacemaker with a P&W R-985. This plane is not shown in the Virtual Museum. Should be.

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My Grandmother's Cousin, Clyde Pangborn, flew a Bellanca CH-300 Called "Miss Veedol" with a 425hp, P&H 985, NR796W around the world and was First to cross the Pacific ocean in "Miss Veedol" Oct 3-5, 1931. He flew from Misawa Japan to Wenatchee Washington in 41 hours an 13 minutes. The plane rated at 5500 pounds Gross left Sabasura Beach near Misawa weighing over 9000 pounds. Pangborn dropped the landing gear in the ocean upon leaving Japan and landed on the belly in Wenatchee. From 1997 to 2005, the EAA in Wenatchee built a replica with the same number NR796W(the original "Miss Veedol" was lost in the Atlantic sometime after the round the world flight). Google "Clyde Pangborn" + "Miss Veedol" for more information.

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I flew the Skyrocket out of Selkirk Manitoba Canada. We had 3 of them and I believe they were the last 3 flying commercially. This was in 1970. We flew them on floats and skis and they were a great aircraft. There was no door on the pilot side so one had to either go to the back door or climb through the side window. All three of our aircraft were lost the same way. The gear on the aircraft was very narrow and the rudder was to small so when on skis the aircraft had a tendency to ground loop easily and the side loading on the gear would cause it to collapse. Then the second problem kicked in and that was a belly fuel tank which would then ignite and the aircraft would burn up. On floats it rivaled the Norseman for a load but it was faster.

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This airplane has got another engine version Bellanca J-6-9 model which had a 300-horsepower 9-cylinder Wright Cyclone engine. It cross over Atlantic from New York to Istanbul non-stop world record in 1931

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