Interesting anecdotes from Bucker history

Bucker aficionados know Capt. Alexandru Papana's Jungmeister YR-PAX well. It is one of the most famous and modeled Buckers. Papana had another not so famous plane. In 1937 he commissioned Bellanca to build an aircraft with which he could fly from New York to Bucharest. He planned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of both the 1918 assembly of delegates that founded modern Romania, and Lindberg's New York to Paris flight.




The Bellanca 28-92 had a Menasco C6 in each wing, and a Ranger V770 in the nose (neither of which were known for their reliability.) The 28-92 had a range of 3,000 miles at 250 mph.

There were problems with the test flights and Papana had a disagreement with the factory which resulted in the cancellation of the order, and of the proposed flight. The aircraft did take part in a number of famous races though, before ending its days derelict somewhere in Ecuador.

Much information here.

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