Recently, on October 6, the Bellanca was rolled out of her hangar at Honolulu's Castle and Cooke Aviation.
The Bellanca was purchased from Delaware manufacturer Bellanca Aircraft Corporation, where it flew across the United States to San Francisco and was eventually shipped to Hawai'i.
On October 6, 1929, Inter-Island Air Service (now Hawaiian Airlines) took flight with the Bellanca, carrying 76 passengers on trial flights.
Inter-Island Air Service was then officially inaugurated on November 11, 1929, with the aircraft logging almost 50 hours that month.
From 1930-31, the Bellanca fulfilled the mission set by Kennedy, giving more than 12,000 guests – six at a time – a birds-eye-view of O‘ahu for three dollars (approximately $43 today) a head.
After learning the plane was for sale in 2009, former Hawaiian Airlines company pilots set out on a mission to re-purchase Hawaiian's most prized piece of history, restore it, and return it to Hawaii
Bellanca has since undergone another major restoration and remains one of the only remaining Bellanca CH-300 Pacemakers in the world that still fly. Today, it’s a source of Hawaiian Airlines' pride, giving employees personal sightseeing tours around Honolulu.
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