Granville Brothers Gee Bee

Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster (also known as the GB Sportster), sometimes nicknamed The Flying [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] due to the short, fat [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] resembling that type of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] storage building, was a special purpose [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] made by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. Gee Bee stands for Granville Brothers.

Design and development


The 1932 R-1 and its sister ship, the R-2, were the successors of the previous year's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]-winning [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was suspected by a few that the Model Z's crash during a speed run in December 1931 was due to an unexpected failure of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] cap, which may have been ripped off of the fuel tank filler tube by the aerodynamic boundary layer of air immediately over the surface of the aircraft's fuselage, resulting in the now-airborne gas cap smashing into
the pilot's face.

A [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and internal fuel caps were part of the new design.

Later theories and analysis of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] showed that the real cause was most likely uncontrolled flutter in the
right aileron which imparted undue stress on that wing, causing it to pitch up sharply and fail.

It has also been widely acknowledged by pilots and aeronautical engineers that a small object such as a petrol cap would not have enough time to accelerate to any dangerous velocity before it hit the cockpit.

Chief engineer Howell "Pete" Miller and Zantford "Granny" Granville spent three days of wind tunnel testing at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Alexander Klemin.

The aircraft had a very peculiar design. Granville reasoned that 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 attachment point).

The cockpit was located very far aft, just in front of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], in order to give the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] better vision while making crowded [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] turns.

In addition, it turned out that the fuselage acted as an airfoil, just like the '[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]' designs of the 1960s.

This allowed the aircraft to make tight "knife-edge" turns without losing altitude.

It was, in effect, a [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engine with wings and a tail on it.

Operational history

The R-1 won the 1932 Thompson Trophy race, piloted by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

He also set a new world landplane speed record of 476 km/h (296 mph) in the Shell Speed Dash.

The distinction of a landplane record was noteworthy because, at that time, specialized speed [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] outran landplanes (see [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).

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."