Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket

what is it?

The Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket is a six-seat utility aircraft built in the United States in the 1930s, a continuation of the design lineage that had started with the Bellanca WB-2. Retaining the same basic airframe of the preceding CH-200 and CH-300, the CH-400 was fitted with a more powerful Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine. Three examples were purchased by the U.S. Navy under the designation RE. Two were used for radio research, and one as an air ambulance for the U.S. Marine Corps.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 14.1 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 249 km/htop speed
• size 2,087 kgmax take-off weight
• built 32made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 96 years ago, in 1930.
• 🏎️Top speed is 1.9× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 14.1 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1930

number built

32

role

civil utility aircraft

makers

AviaBellanca Aircraft

engines

1× Pratt & Whitney Wasp C

length

8.5 m

wingspan

14.1 m

height

2.5 m

max take-off weight

2,087 kg

top speed

249 km/h

cruise speed

209 km/h

range

—

ceiling

6,096 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.