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In June, 1916, Bellanca became consulting engineer for the Maryland Pressed Steel Company, Hagerstown, Maryland, but he retained his office in New York.  For this company he designed and supervised the manufacture of the Bellanca C.D. and C.E. Sport biplanes. The C.D. being a single-seat machine with a 3-cylinder, 30 h.p. Anzani engine for primary flying, and the C.E. being a two-seater with a 6-cylinder, 55 h.p. Anzani engine for more advanced use. These were advertised and a few were built and sold. In 1920 Bellanca designed a five-passenger, high-wing, externally braced, cabin monoplane using a 10-cylinder, 95 h.p. Anzani engine. It was a very clean advanced design and the forerunner of many highly efficient Bellanca monoplanes to follow. During this period Bellanca had also devised a patented turnbuckle and other aviation accessories for the market. These early planes showed unusual performance. and in early 1920 one of the model C.E. planes, with a 55 h.p., 6-cylinder engine, flew 99 miles per hour fully loaded. In July, 1920, Clarence Chamberlin flew a model C.E. Bellanca biplane from Garden City, Long Island, to Glen Falls, New York, 220 miles, in two hours and five minutes, getting 27 miles per gallon of gas.
     During the spring of 1921 the firm decided to bow out of the aviation business and advertised Bellanca's plane developments for sale, including his services. Later in 1921, Victor H. Roos of Omaha, Nebraska, negotiated to take over the Maryland aviation assets, and the Roos-Bellanca Aeroplane Company was formed in Omaha. Early in 1922 they went ahead with the five-seat cabin monoplane project Bellanca has started at Hagerstown. Redesigned with improvements, it became the Bellanca Model C.F. machine with the same Anzani engine. 
     At the midwestern flying meet held at Monmouth, Illinois, July 15 to 17, 1922, the Bellanca C.F. won first prize in thirteen events and was the talk of the meet. At the National Air Races in St. Louis, Missouri, in October, 1923, this plane was first in all efficiency contests, and later that month also won the Country Club Trophy Race at Detroit, Michigan.