The Gee Bee... 


The plane has always fascinated me. I was perusing the intranets and found a great site entitled "The Gee Bee". Subtitle, Doolittle Tames The Gee Bee.  Good stuff. Here is an excerpt....but grab a beverage and go read the whole thing.  

The Granvilles needed a pilot, and Doolittle needed a plane. Would he care to test-fly the R‑1? Doolittle flew to Springfield the next day for a look. The Granvilles proudly rolled out their exceptionally well-finished creation, its quintessentially ’30s scalloped, black-piped, red-and-white paint scheme (reportedly inspired by the Coca-Cola logo), set off by red 11s and dice showing 5 and 6. But Doolittle was less concerned with the finish than the design. Already known to the aviation press as “the Flying Silo,” the R‑1, essentially a scaled-up version of the Model Z in which Bayles had died, struck Doolittle as “all engine with minuscule wings and a bomblike fuselage.” The Granvilles had simply streamlined a Wasp Sr. engine with a modicum of bodywork, adding just enough wing and control surface area to keep it airborne, barely under control, and moving at nearly 300 mph. 

Doolittle knew the airplane would be “extremely hot to handle.” After his one brief test flight, Boardman had reported severe directional instability, and the Granvilles had added two square feet of fin to the rudder. Doolittle clambered into the claustrophobic cockpit and asked that the engine be fired up. As the Wasp Sr. roared to life, one of the Granvilles, no doubt thinking ahead to locating the wreckage, asked where he was headed. 

“I’m going to Cleveland, of course!” answered Doolittle. He took off and, without even a turn around the field, headed west. In less than two hours the Granvilles received a telegram: “Landed in Cleveland O.K., Jim.”

(Clickabiggun)