Bellanca, Giuseppe Mario

Bellanca, Giuseppe Mario

(1886–1960) aeronautical designer/manufacturer; born in Sciacca, Sicily. Emigrating to America to join relatives (1912), he became a noted airplane designer when his plane, Columbia, set an endurance record (1927) and made a successful transatlantic crossing two weeks after Charles Lindbergh's (June 4–6, 1927). Developer of the single-engine Cruisair passenger series (1930–50), he was viewed as a better designer than a businessman.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.