Maryland Pressed Steel Company

For other uses, see Pressed Steel.
Maryland Pressed Steel Company
Industry Light Aircraft Production
Founded March 15, 1915
Headquarters Hagerstown, Maryland, United States of America
Key people
 Giuseppe Mario Bellanca
Parent Poole Engineering and Machine Co - 1916
Footnotes / references
The New York & Hagerstown Metal Stamping Co was reorganized into the Maryland Pressed Steel Company in 1914.

Maryland Pressed Steel Company was an American aircraft manufacturer of the Bellanca CD, and CE aircraft.[1]

The New York & Hagerstown Metal Stamping Co manufactured arms for the British and was reorganized into the Maryland Pressed Steel Company in 1914. In 1916, the Poole Engineering and Machine Co acquired the company as a division.[2] The company produced arms for the wartime effort. The company attempted to break into the lucrative aircraft production field with the foundation of their Aircraft Department.

In 1917 during WWI, designer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca was hired to build six aircraft for the company in its factory at Hagerstown, Maryland.[3] The two passenger 35 hp CD model biplanes were demonstrated at Towson, Maryland in August 1918[4] in an attempt to win a military contract. The 55 hp CE aircraft were advertised at a cost of $3500, but only one was produced after the war's end. Bellanca announced in May 1920 that it could not produce aircraft due to a shortage of engines from France.[5] In 1921 The airplane business was sold to Bellanca and partner Victor Roos from Omaha, Nebraska forming the Roos-Bellanca Company. Bellanca left for Wright Aeronautical updating the CF design into the famousWright WB-2, which was sold to the Columbia Aircraft Corp. Bellanca continued to produce aircraft with his own companyAviaBellanca Aircraft.[6]

At the end of WWI, the company lost its contracts, switching production to wire wheels. It then went into receivership, where it was sold to R.J. Funkhouser & Co., who subsequently sold it to the M.P. Moller Motor Car Co. The 355,000 square feet (33,000 m2) Hagerstown plant had a series of previous owners including the Crawford Bicycle Co, American Bicycle Co., Pope Manufacturing Company, and Montrose Metal Casket Company.[7]

Aircraft

Summary of aircraft built by
Model name First flight Number built Type
Bellanca CD 1919 6 Tractor Biplane
Bellanca CE 1919 Cancelled before production Tractor Biplane

References

  1. ↑ Sport Aviation. August 1990. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ "M.P. Moller Motor Car Company, 1923-1938 - Hagerstown, Maryland".
  3. ↑ Donald M. Pattillo. A History in the Making: 80 Turbulent Years in the American General Aviation Industry. p. 22.
  4. ↑ Compressed Air. August 1918. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ Aerial Age: 398. 31 May 1920. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ "Friends of Bellanca".
  7. ↑ "M.P. Moller Motor Car Company, 1923-1938 - Hagerstown, Maryland".
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