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Posted

Wow! Very nice. Still one of the coolest airplanes ever designed. I recently purchased the 1/75th scale Model Power pre-built die cast of the Gee Bee R-1. A killer plane, in more ways than one.

Scott

Posted (edited)

Thanks guys!

I thought it was the GeeBee Z that crashed and killed.

The wheel pants are scalloped and pinstriped and ready for clear…

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Edited by Scale-Master
Posted

The foil is a bit heavy, but I thought I'd give it a try. It won't replace BMF, but it has some uses.

The wheels are installed in the finished pants, and they roll great on the brass axles.

DSC04634_zpslr9s8sez.jpg

Posted (edited)

I thought it was the GeeBee Z that crashed and killed.

I believe every version of the Gee Bee crashed at one time or another, often fatal for their pilots. High-speed wing flutter resulted in Lowell Bayles' wing coming off of the Z during a speed record attempt, slamming the aircraft into the ground.

Another crash was attributed to an oil filler cap coming off in flight, and slamming into the canopy...and the pilot's face.

Russel Boardman died in an R1 when the aircraft stalled during a race, shortly after refueling, and nosed over on takeoff (if I remember correctly). (An aircraft "stall" doesn't mean the engine quit, like a car "stalling". In an airplane, it occurs when the nose-up attitude of the airplane is too steep for it's speed. The upper surface of the wing is shrouded by the leading edge, and the wing stops "flying". The airplane falls out of the air, and if there is not enough altitude to recover, it crashes into the ground. Usually pilot error.)

A stretched-fuselage rebuild of the R1 also crashed twice, the second time fatally after being modified in a way the factory had advised against.

A "sport" (non-racing, longer-wing version) crashed fatally when a mechanic left a rag (that was later sucked into the air intake) inside the engine cowling.

Though the crash of the Bayles' Z looks very much like massive structural failure, other crashes were due to pilot error or mechanical failures due to the mistakes of the mechanics working on the planes.

It was a very hot airplane, with a huge engine and small control surfaces. In the hands of an exceptional pilot, it was fast and flyable. Jimmy Doolittle raced one and remarked that he thought it one of the "sweetest" airplanes he'd ever flown.

PS. There's just as much just flat wrong info on the Gee Bees on the net as there is on everything else. My info comes from my own library, including copies of primary sources from the time the planes were flying, and interviews with surviving pilots.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
Posted

The little barrel. Wasn't that the nickname ? I was getting into r/c planes several years ago and was looking at an ARF kit of this plane. The salesman asked me how many r/c planes I have flown. I said none. He said " Trust me son ( I was younger than ) you do NOT want to start with one of these because it's 100 % sure you will crash it ! " I never did get one.

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