Photograph:
Granville Gee Bee E NC11044 at Portland, Oregon, USA in August 2007 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
United States of America
Description:
Single-seat sport and racing monoplane
Power Plant:
One 82 kw (110 hp) Warner Scarab seven-cylinder air-cooled radial engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 7.72 m (25 ft)
- Length: 5.14 m (16 ft 9 in)
- Height: 1.82 m (6 ft)
- Wing area: 8.82 m² (95 sq ft)
- Max speed: 238 km/ h (148 mph)
- Cruising speed: 204 km/ h (127 mph)
- Landing speed: 84 km/h (52 mph)
- Rate of climb at sea level: 457 m/min (1,500 ft/min)
- Cruising range: 917 km (570 miles)
- Empty weight: 414 kg (912 lb)
- Useful load: 221 kg (488 lb)
- Loaded weight: 635 kg (1,400 lb)
Time to 3,505 m (11,500 ft): 10 mins
Ceiling: 5,791 m (19,000 ft)
History:
The Gee Bee series was designed by the Granville brothers (Zantford, Mark, Robert, Edward and Tom) solely for air-racing in the United States, this being very popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s, these races including the Thompson Trophy Race, the Cleveland National Air Races, the Bendix Trophy, etc.
A number of models of the Gee Bee were built as development from year to year continued. The Model X Cirrus Derby Racer was flown in the All-America Derby of 1930 and it was the success of this aircraft which led to the Models Y and Z.
The Model Z with a 399 kw (535 hp) Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine won the 1931 Thompson Trophy flown by Lowell Bayles and development by the Granville brothers led to high-performance designs for pilots interested in air racing. There then followed the R-1 and R-2, the former with a 597 kw (800 hp) engine for the Thompson Trophy race, and the latter with a 410 kw (550 hp) engine for the Bendix long-distance race, the latter the R.2 winning the 1932 Thompson race flown by well known American aviator, James Howard ‘Jimmy’ Doolittle.
Less powerful models were also produced for sport pilots, these being known as the Gee Bee Sportster, and included the Model B with an 82 kw (110 hp) inverted Cirrus Ensign engine; the Model C with a 71 kw (95 hp) Menasco Pirate B-4 engine; the Model D with the 93 kw (125 hp) Menasco Pirate C-4 engine; the Model E with the 82 kw (110 hp) Warner Scarab seven-cylinder radial engine; and the Model F with the Fairchild 6-390 engine providing 101 kw (135 hp).
The fuselage framework was built up of welded steel tubing faired to an approximate oval section with spruce formers and fairing strips, then fabric covered. A baggage locker of 0.056 m³ (2 cub ft) with allowance for 18 kg (40 lb) was built behind the firewall. The wing consisted of a centre-section and two outer panels, built up of solid spruce spar beams with spruce and plywood truss-type wing ribs, the complete framework being covered with fabric. A fuel tank was mounted in each stub end of the centre-section and fuel was fed to a gravity tank in the fuselage ahead of the cockpit by a hand-operated pump.
In recent years there has been an upsurge in the construction of replicas of 1930s racing aircraft and, it has been said, by the Society of Air Racing Historians in the United States, that 26 flying reproductions of the “Golden Age of American Racing” aircraft have been under construction, including various models of the Gee Bee, or have been completed.
Two replicas of the Gee Bee model E have been under construction in Australia, one at Camden, NSW to be fitted with a Warner Super Scarab radial engine, and the other in Victoria to be fitted with a Rotec R-2800 radial engine.