Will Someone Please Buy This Biggest And Baddest Of Gee Bee Air Racers?! [6/7] - The R2 has an approach speed of 145mph and a touchdown speed of 120mph!.jpg (1/1)

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When I hear the words 'Gee Bee' it warps me back to the roots of my fascination
with flight. I was obsessed with the Granville Brothers' air racing creations as
a little kid. The whole period of aviation is as romantic as it gets, but the
air racing circuit was a huge deal back then and men with nerves of steel
climbed into aircraft that pushed the very edge of aerospace technology for the
name of speed and glory. Now, nearly a century later, a recreation of the beast
of all Gee Bees is for sale. It's gorgeous. It's flyable. It's remarkably cheap.
And most importantly, it needs a home.

When you mention Gee Bee to anyone with a love of aviation, they probably think
of the Z or R models. The Gee Bee Z was made famous all over again in 1991 via
the film adaptation of the Rocketeer comic books. I absolutely loved this movie
and still think it is sorely undervalued. It had so many things that stuck with
me, from the fascination with the period and its Art Deco motif, to the legend
of Howard Hughes, to some really great shooting locales, including Griffith
Observatory in Los Angeles. Like a few other television shows and films of the
era, the Rocketeer had a huge impact on what would become my interests as an
adult and my eventual career path, but in a way that reinforced my passions more
than anything else. I saw that movie on its premiere night in the incredible,
but long-gone Fox Theater in Portland, Oregon with my dad. You couldn't ask for
a better setting for that film.

Not too long after the Rocketeer made the Gee Bee famous again, Delmar Benjamin
began flying his Gee Bee R2 recreation on the air show circuit. The R model Gee
Bees were arguably the most famous, with Jimmy Doolittle winning the Thompson
Trophy in Cleveland in 1932 while setting a new speed record in the Gee Bee R1.
This was just one of the model's many feats.

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For well over a decade, the R2 flew all over the United States and abroad with
Benjamin at its controls and was an absolute star of the air show circuit.
Eventually, it was retired and put on display at Fantasy of Flight in Polk City,
Florida. Also housed there are a number of Gee Bees, including a flyable Z
model. It was put back into the air after investigating the wing flutter issue
that caused the original to crash, with Delmar Benjamin at the controls of
course.

https://youtu.be/5vaBUAh4HkU

https://youtu.be/YJuAaHsexEI

https://youtu.be/uIg3GHP0FCc

https://youtu.be/PnnSb1QYFMk

https://youtu.be/RLx007iAtdo


So, suffice it to say, the Gee Bee family of planes is near and dear to my
heart. That's why it's so exciting that there is another rare Gee Bee recreation
that has had many of the design's original issues solved and is fully flyable.
Oh, and it can also carry a passenger! This aircraft is a modification of the
biggest and last Gee Bee of them all, the R-6H model, also known as the Gee Bee
Q.E.D., that traces its roots back to the Gee Bee R model.

Only one Q.E.D. was ever built and it had a less than a spectacular racing
career. The Granville Brothers built it for captain of industry Floyd Odlum who
intended for his future wife, famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran, to fly it in
the London-to-Sydney McRobertson Air Race. She didn't get any farther than
Romania when mechanical issues kept her on the ground. Beyond that, the R-6H
never even completed any of the four Bendix and Thompson air races it was
entered into.

By the late 1930s, famed Mexican aviator Francisco Sarabia owned the aircraft,
which he named "Conquistador del Cielo" (Conqueror of Heaven). He set out to set
a number of speed-over-distance records with it. The big Q.E.D. was as much a
touring machine as it was a pylon racer.

On June 7th, 1939, while leaving to set a Washington, D.C. to Mexico City record
from Bolling Field, the Q.E.D.'s engine quit when a rag left in the aircraft's
engine bay was sucked into its carburetor. The aircraft crashed into the Potomac
River shortly after takeoff, killing Francisco Sarabia, but leaving the aircraft
largely intact. It was later restored for display in Lerdo, Mexico as a memorial
attraction to the famed flyer.

Famed vintage aircraft recreator and restorer Jim Moss decided that the largest
and last of the Granville Brothers racers could and should be brought back to
life and improved upon. The result was Moss's gorgeous Q.E.D. II that featured
well over double the horsepower (675hp Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet vs 1,425hp
Wright R-1820 Cyclone), 10 percent larger wing area, and a bigger vertical
stabilizer and rudder, among other changes that made the aircraft far more
stable and enjoyable to fly. So, calling it a 'Super Q.E.D.' also makes a lot of
sense.

After 50,000 man-hours of work, Moss's creation took to the skies for the first
time in 2013. Sadly, he was never able to see it fly. He died just weeks before
it took to the air. Still, as the aircraft made its rounds, including to Oshkosh
in 2014, where people were stunned with the quality of work that went into the
aircraft. It was truly a work of flying art.

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---- Currently, the king of the Gee Bees is for sale for $899,000. This has to
be a small fraction of what it cost to develop and build it and the aircraft is
essentially brand new.

So, if you are a pilot that needs an air show business plan or a plane collector
with a $900k burning a hole in your pocket, please buy this and fly the hell out
of it. Inspire a whole new generation of aviation enthusiasts and keep the
legend of the golden age of air racing alive for years to come, just like Delmar
Benjamin did for me in his R-2.



more at
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...r-show-circuit