Gee Bee R-1
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- For the 1978 arcade game, see Gee Bee (arcade game).
The Gee Bee R-1, also nick-named "Super Sportster", was a special purpose aircraft exclusively made for racing by Granville Brothers Aircraft (in fact Gee Bee stands for Granville Brothers).
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 that year was due to the gas cap 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 Alexamder Klemin. The aircraft had a very peculiar design, Granny reasoned that a teardrop shaped fuselage would have a lower drag than a pencil thin one. So the fuselage was wider than the engine. The cockpit was located very far aft, just in front of the tail rudder 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 1960's. This allowed the plane to make tight 'knife-edge' turns without losing altutude. 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 race, piloted by Jimmy Doolittle. He also set a new world landplane speed record of 296 mi/h (476 km/h) in the Shell Speed Dash. The distinction of a landplane record was noteworthy because at that time, specialized speed seaplanes outran landplanes. 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 very dangerous machine. The small wings, very low polar moment, and tiny control surfaces made for an aircraft that could rapidly get away from all but the most skilled pilots. This temperament was unfortunately shared with most air racers of the day.
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