As this forum seems to have massively shifted towards modern warfare, there is probably but a handful of individuals actually interested by old unbuilt designs by long defunct companies... Too bad, but I hope these individuals continue to enjoy the fruits of my research as much as I do... Tonight, I'm offering a totally obscure project from 1953: the
Model 60 Utility Airplane, a sesquiplane which bore the unmistakable mark of Giuseppe Bellanca himself, and certainly built upon earlier pre-war types and projects, most notably the
Airbus/Aircruiser family and their W-shaped "lift-struts" which were a Bellanca design trademark.
The Model 60 was studied in two distinct forms: a single-engined version designated
Model 60-160, for which Bellanca envisaged the use of a 1,650 hp Armstrong-Siddeley Mamba (which he mistakenly refered to as a "De Haviland", wrong spelling included!), though a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp was also considered; and the multimotor version designated
Model 60-120, which would have used either two 600 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-2 Wasp engines, or three 400 hp Turbomeca Artouste, for a total of 1,200 hp in both cases (hence the "-120" suffix).
The all-metal Model 60 was seen by Bellanca as a possible replacement for the De Havilland DHC-3
Otter and its military versions (little did he know that the venerable bushplane would live on in operational service for another three decades!) Of course, the type was convertible to seaplane configuration, like all previous Bellanca transports. Provision was also made for external stores, pods, tanks or bombs depending on the customer's needs.
It's a pleasant surprise that the sole file about the Model 60 in the Bellanca archives contains drawings (the NASM usually removes them and asks researchers to inquire about them — most likely at a price). Unfortunately, these drawings were of pretty lousy quality, unsuitable for sharing "as is", which is partly the reason why I recreated them for inclusion here. The other reason is that I LOVE the Model 60 design, simple as that!
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