Bellanca CH-200 Pacemaker


The Bellanca CH-200 Pacemaker was a six-seat, high-wing, single-engine utility aircraft built in the United States in the 1920s. It was a development of the Wright WB-2 that Bellanca had acquired the rights to in 1926 and was the first Bellanca-branded aircraft to gain a type certificate. The CH-200 was used in a number of pioneering long-distance flights and attempts on distance and endurance records.

Operational history

At the 1928 Los Angeles Air Races, a CH-200 piloted by Victor Dallin took second place in the speed trials and won the efficiency trials. The same year, Lt Royal Thomas set a world endurance record of 35 hours 25 minutes in the Reliance.
Colonel Hubert Julian set another record in Bellanca J-2 Special NR782W, a modified CH-200 re-engined with a Packard DR-980 diesel engine in which he stayed aloft for 84 hours and 32 minutes, a record for diesels which has never been broken.
Between 11 December 1928 and 25 June 1929, Peruvian aviators Carlos Martínez de Pinillos and Carlos Zegarra Lanfranco flew a CH-200 named Perú on a tour of Latin America. During that time, they covered in 157 hours 55 minutes of total flight, visiting 13 countries and 25 cities.

Specifications