American Champion and Bellanca series

The Citabria, Bellanca and Scout can trace their lineage back to the Aeronca 7 Champion (described separately).

Champion Aircraft Corporation purchased the production rights to the Aeronca 7 in 1951, and from this developed the 7EC Traveller and 7GCB Challenger. The Challengerbased Citabria first flew in May 1964 and incorporated a number of changes over the earlier models. These included more glass area, a squarer tail and stressing for limited (+5g, 2g) aerobatic flight, while other features were the flapless wing and choice of 75kW (100hp) Continental O200 or 80kW (108hp) Lycoming O235 engines. Variants on this theme were the 110kW (150hp) O320 powered 7GCAA and the 7GCBC with a longer span wing fitted with flaps.

Bellanca took over production of the Citabria in September 1970, renaming the 7ECA, which by now was powered by an 85kW (115hp) O235, as the Citabria; the 7GCAA the Citabria 150 and the 7GCBC the Citabria 150S.

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