Bellanca 14-13

The Bellanca 14-13 Cruisair Senior was a three-passenger light cabin monoplane built in the United States by AviaBellanca Aircraft after World War II as the follow-up to the prewar Bellanca 14-7. It kept the earlier design but gained a redesigned fuselage with an enlarged cabin, a 150 horsepower Franklin six-cylinder horizontally opposed piston engine, and oval endplates on the horizontal stabiliser that earned it the nickname cardboard Constellation. The wing was wood and the fuselage a fabric-covered welded steel-tube frame. Introduced in 1946, it developed through the 14-13-2 and 14-13-3 versions and led to the higher-powered 14-19 Cruisemaster, with later versions built by Northern Aircraft, Downer Aircraft and Inter-Air. Only about 600 of the 14-13 were produced because of the postwar economy and a glut of surplus military aircraft, yet the type remained popular as a classic cabin monoplane; Joshua and Winifred Haldeman flew a 14-13-2 from South Africa to Oslo and to Australia.