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Bellanca TES

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TES/Blue Streak
Role Distance record aircraft
Manufacturer Bellanca Aircraft Corporation
Designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca
First flight 1929
Retired 1931
Status crashed
Number built 1
Rear view of the ill-fated TES

The Bellanca TES (Tandem Experimental Sesquiplane) or Blue Streak was a push-pull sesquiplane aircraft designed by Giuseppe Mario Bellanca in 1929 for the first non-stop flight from Seattle to Tokyo.[1]

In 1930 it was refitted with two 600 hp Curtiss Conqueror engines and reinforced for the Chicago Daily News as a cargo plane named The Blue Streak. The aircraft crashed on 26 May, 1931 when the rear propeller driveshaft broke due to vibration and all four on board lost their lives.

Specifications (with Pratt & Whitney Wasp engines)

Data from [2]

General characteristics

  • Crew: four

Performance

  • Endurance: up to 100 hours

References

  1. ^ Bellanca's Secret, Time, 1929-05-06
  2. ^ Letec magazine, volume V, issue 11, page 582-583, November 1929, in Czech

Bibliography

  • Alan Abel and Drina Welch Abel: Bellanca's Golden Age, Stockton : Wild Canyon Books, 2004, ISBN 1-891118-46-3