Gee Bee Model R

File:Gee Bee R-1.jpg

Replica of the Gee Bee R-1 at the New England Air Museum.

The Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster (also known as the GB Sportster), sometimes nicknamed The Flying Silo due to the short, fat fuselage resembling a farm storage building, was a special purpose racing aircraft made by Granville Brothers Aircraft of Springfield, Massachusetts. Gee Bee stands for Granville Brothers.

History

The 1932 R-1 and its sister ship the R-2 were the successors of the previous year's Thompson trophy winning Model Z. It was felt that the Model Z's crash during a speed run later in 1931 was due to the gasoline tank cap's flying off and smashing into the pilot's face. A bullet-proof windscreen and internal fuel caps were part of the new design. Chief engineer Howell 'Pete' Miller and Zantford 'Granny' Granville spent three days of wind tunnel testing at NYU with aeronautical engineering professor Alexander Klemin. The aircraft had a very peculiar design. Granny reasoned a teardrop-shaped fuselage would have lower drag than a straight-tapered one, so the fuselage was wider than the engine at its widest point (at the wing root). The cockpit was located very far aft, just in front of the vertical fin, in order to give the racing pilot better vision while making crowded pylon turns. In addition, it turned out the fuselage acted as an airfoil, just like the 'lifting-body' designs of the 1960s. This allowed the plane to make tight 'knife-edge' turns without losing altitude. It was, in effect, a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engine with wings and a tail stuck on it.

The R-1 won the 1932 Thompson Trophy cross country speed race, piloted by Jimmy Doolittle. He also set a new world landplane speed record of 476 k/ph (296 m/ph) in the Shell Speed Dash. The distinction of a landplane record was noteworthy because at that time, specialized speed seaplanes outran landplanes (see Schneider Trophy). The Springfield Union of September 6, 1932 quoted Doolittle as saying, "She is the sweetest ship I've ever flown. She is perfect in every respect and the motor is just as good as it was a week ago. It never missed a beat and has lots of stuff in it yet. I think this proves that the Granville brothers up in Springfield build the very best speed ships in America today."

But the R-1 rapidly earned a reputation as, potentially, a very dangerous machine. The small wings, very low polar moment of inertia, and tiny control surfaces made for an aircraft that could rapidly get away from all but the most skilled pilots. Unfortunately, this shortcoming was common to most air racers of the day.

During the 1933 Thompson trophy race, Russell Boardman was killed flying number 11. After taking off from a refueling stop in Indianapolis, Indiana, the R-1 stalled, caught a wingtip and crashed.

The R-1 was later repaired with parts from the crashed R-2, creating the "Long Tail Racer." Unfortunately, this too crashed soon after it was built, but luckily the pilot, Roy Minor, was not severely injured. After another rebuild, the Long Tail Racer was sold to Cecil Allen. Allen, against the advice of the Granvilles, modified it with larger gas tanks aft of center, which apparently made the craft unstable in pitch. Allen took off with a full fuel tank, crashed and was killed. The plane was not rebuilt. [1]

Specifications (Gee Bee Super Sportster R-1)

Data from Aero Digest magazine "The Influence of Racing Types on Commercial Aircraft Design"

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 17 ft 8 in (5.38 m)
• Wingspan: 25 ft (7.62 m)
• Height: 8 ft 2 in (2.48 m)
• Wing area: 75 ft² (6.97 m²)
• Empty weight: 1840 lbs (834 kg)
• Loaded weight: 2415 lbs (1,095 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 3075 lbs (1394.8 kg)
• Powerplant: 1× Pratt & Whitney Wasp 1340 cu in (22 l) displacement Air Cooled 9 cylinder radial, 800 hp (596.5 kW)
• Incidence: 2.5 Degrees

Aspect ratio: 6.1 Performance

• Maximum speed: 294.38 mph (473.8 km/h)
• Cruise speed: 260 mph (418.4 km/h)
• Stall speed: 90 mph (144 km/h)
• Range: 925 miles (1488 km) 630 miles, full throttle
• Rate of climb: 6100 fpm (31 m/s)

Note that the Wikipedia site Pratt & Whitney R-1340 lists the power output of the engine used in the Gee Bee R-1 as 550 horsepower, rather than the 800 hp listed above from another source, this is due to the supercharging of the engine. Additionally, in 1933 the R-1 was retrofitted with a 1,860 cid Hornet engine rated at 1,000 hp.

In Popular culture

The video game Racing Aces (Sega CD) depicts a Gee Bee aircraft; it being notably the fastest aircraft in the game.

The 1991 film The Rocketeer opens with a test flight (and crash sequence) using a Gee Bee (Model Z) aircraft. Another Gee Bee appears, unflown, at the end of the film.

References

1. Template:Citation

External links

• [2] Website dedicated to the Gee Bee "family" of aircraft designs
• [3] Free Fiddlers Green Paper Model site with a good Gee Bee history page. (Model opens in pdf file)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gee Bee Model R".