Super Viking
One of my students made a derogatory comment about “plastic” airplanes when I mentioned airplanes of composite construction one day in class. He said something to the effect that real airplanes are supposed to be made of metal. I thought to myself, uhm… this guy needs a little more information.
Then I thought of one day back in the late ’70s.
We were sitting around the airport hangar flying and drinking coffee, the way real pilots do while waiting for the next student, the next sortie, the next departure. It was a nice morning and then we heard someone announce entering downwind for runway nine in a Bellanca Viking. Like all pilots at an airport who hear about a different airplane about to land, we stepped out to watch how the Viking pilot did with our short, grass runway.
He came down and greased it on. He back taxied the runway to the FBO and we thought he would join us for coffee, but before he did, it became obvious he was an aircraft salesman.
We gathered around the Viking to ooh and aah it. It was definitely worth every ooh and aah. She was a brand new ship freshly constructed in Minnesota and she was, indeed, a true work of art. Compared to the other airplanes on the field, this airplane was a thoroughbred.
Giuseppe Bellanca
The airplane’s lineage traces back to the first monoplane aircraft ever designed and built in the United States with an enclosed cabin. An Italian immigrant by the name of Giuseppe Mario Bellanca designed that airplane as he did this brand new Bellanca 17-30A Super Viking.
Bellanca came to the United States in 1911 with an engineering degree from the Politecnico di Milano University. He created the Bellanca Aircraft Company in 1927 and worked actively in the aviation field throughout his life.
Powered by a Continental IO-520 engine of 300 hp, the Super Viking is capable of cruising at 178 knots for more than 1000 nm. A steel tube cage of 4130 chromoly with wood formers covered by fabric gives shape to the fuselage and the wing is wood. The landing gear is retractable and the appointments of the interior are the finest.
“A wood wing!” someone in the group says. “Is that safe?”
The demo pilot takes it in stride and then does something I have never seen done with a light airplane. He takes a run at the Viking, jumps in the air, spins around, and lands right on the wingtip. The airplane rocks a bit and then settles down and he continues his spiel from a comfortable sitting position on the wingtip.
“I don’t know if I would feel safe flying a ‘canvas’ airplane,” says someone else.
The demo pilot slides off the wing, walks over to the baggage compartment and takes out a standard shot, one of those cannon balls which weighs 16 pounds used in field and track for shot put events. He steps away from the Viking, turns, and then hurls it at the side of the airplane.
The shot bounces off the fuselage and back at him, coming to rest at his feet. He picks it up, turns to face his audience offering the shot to anyone who will take it. Then he asks, “Any of you Cessna or Piper pilots want to try that with your airplane?”
Some of the others are dubious, but I am sold.
I will take a tube, wood, and fabric airplane any day over the “spam cans.”
-30-
© 2010 J. Clark
Sat in on a workshop at AirVenture this year about how to cover an airplane with canvas. Very interesting how it is done! Thanks for another truly interesting story. Jeanne