1.15: Killer Plane and The American Hero That Tamed It - Jimmy Doolittle and the 300mph Gee Bee R1
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2020
- This was the fastest machine in the world in 1932. It had 45-mph on Sir Malcom Campbell’s land based monster, it had 172-mph on Gar Wood’s boat that packed four massive Packard airplane engines and let’s not even waste our time on locomotives of the day. It was piloted by a talented, daring man who a decade later would become one of America’s greatest war heroes and it was constructed by a group of brothers during a 90-day thrash in an abandoned dance hall in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The plane was a hot rod of the highest order before the phrase was coined. The machine was called the Gee Bee R1 and it was destined to become a race winner, a widow maker, and one of the most celebrated planes of the great era of air racing in America.
Its pilot was Jimmy Doolittle, a man destined to become one of the greatest war heroes America has ever known in the 1940s for leading the daring and near suicidal Tokyo Raid. He was among the best pilots in the world in 1932 and that was good because had he not been, this airplane would have killed him dead at the first chance and it tried.
This is a story written in horsepower, risk, and blood. - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
![The Largest Biplane Ever Flown | Caproni Ca.90 [Aircraft Overview #23]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aVnxQCa4ieM/mqdefault.jpg)
Great presentation. There was another man that could tame the GEE BEE. Delmar Benjamin. He built the most exact replica of the R2 he could manage and flew it. He flew it on the airshow circuit from 1991 to 2002. He didn't just fly it around and make some high speed passes either. He did a full aerobatic routine with loops, rolls, low inverted passes, knife edge passes, the whole deal. I got to talk to Delmar about the "handling" of the Gee Bee at an airshow. He admitted it was challenging, telling me that the control forces were at times opposite to what you might expect (divergent). The photo of the Gee Bee you have on the screen during this presentation is most likely a photo of Delmar's aircraft (the Gulf Coast Avionics logo under the cockpit window is only on Delmar's plane). I was hoping that you would mention Delmar as the story of GB is not complete without him.
I have seen him fly it too.
Thanks for this one as always, Brian. I knew of this plane & Jimmy Doolittle, but I never knew the whole story. I had no idea he accomplished so much in his lifetime, nor that he lived to be 96 years old. You are educating this old man so much, I'll have to start calling you Professor Lohnes! Thank you once again, Ron.
As a life long gearhead, motorcycle racer and car dragracer, I am interested in anything with an engine, horsepower and speed. As a veteran myself I am also interested in military history and am well aware of the career of Jimmy Doolittle. Your video was very well composed and informative and a pleasure to listen too. I look forward to many more videos from you.
Nobody thought the B-25 could take off or land on an aircraft carrier, Jimmy worked it out!
Not land on carriers, even Jimmy Doolittle couldn't land a B25 on a carrier and the Tokyo bombing mission never involved them landing back on the carrier nor did the crews ever train for it, it simply wasn't possible.
From day one the plan was to have the planes take off from the Hornet and after bombing Tokyo keep going to China where landing strips had been built for them in secret by the Chinese people, the problem however was that the carrier was spotted by two Japanese fishing trawlers miles before the point they were supposed to take off from meaning that they probably wouldn't be able to make the landing strips, the question was do they keep steaming towards Japan hoping they sank the fishing trawlers before they could get a message out and risk being attacked by Japanese military forces that were in fact alerted by the fishing trawlers or do they launch where they were at and risk the bombers running out of fuel before they could make it to the airstrips in China after bombing Tokyo, they chose not to risk them having sunk the trawlers before they got a message out and decided to launch the bombers from where they were at, if planes ran out of fuel before making their designated landing strips in China the crews would just have to bail out and take their chances on the ground on foot hoping friendly Chinese found them before the Japanese who occupied part of China did, some did and with the help of the Chinese found their way back to freedom, some were captured by the Japanese, some I think disappeared and were never heard from again and at least one went to a southern point of the Soviet Union and was interned for the remainder of the war.
But landing back on the carrier was never a part of the plan.
Seems like a racing car with a short wheelbase, narrow track, high center of gravity and wicked torque steer.
Brian the gee bee z that bales crashed in detroit was aileron flutter. They didnt understand that stuff back then. Kermit weeks has a replica at fantasy of flight in Florida. It's been flown a handfull of times and they have conducted flutter tests on it in recent "ish" history. Nice video! Love the gee bees. Favorite planes by far
Brian was axtually correct, there is film footage of the crash. The gas cap was found, some distance away from the crash, site.
@@popeyeman69 1931 tech. It's not what happened. The replica has been flutter tested (kermit weeks). Over 260mph it has major wing flutter issues. They didnt even know what flutter was back then. Plane was over 300 when it failed. If a gas cap came off that was traveling at the same speed as the plane how would it break through a windshield....they just didnt know any better back then.
I love that era of plane because I liked TaleSpin as a kid. lol
Exactly.
The NR2101 is still registered, to Kermit Weeks, with the P&W 985 engine.
I remember reading about these airplanes as an aviation obsessed boy and building a model of one. I've always thought they looked as though the company ran out of fuselage materials halfway back and just stuck the tailplane on to get it finished.
Omg ur bringing back memories to when I was a kid and I watched the Rocketeer countless times as a kid! I decided that I too one day would have my own rocket backpack AND my very own GeeBee I had so many models it’s def one of the COOLEST airplanes of all time.
AWESOME!
Id never heard of these planes, great video as always Brian.
Haven’t listened to this all the way through yet but I wonder what Howard Hughes’ thoughts on this plane were
I ve seen clips of it flying and stills , but nothing on the internals like the cockpit or what fills the area from the engine to the cockpit was that all gas tank or ?
Reno Air Races Hello ?!!!!!
The story of Bill Hosey was written into a song about this period of air racing.
Cartoon character’s came to mind
It seems news reporters were ghouls back then too. "Do you think he'll live, kids?"
My favorite airplanes
People really don't know or understand how good a pilot Jimmy Doolittle was.
It's funny, people continually claim that the British and Eric Brown had to test U.S. aircraft for Doolittle and explain to him how they performed.
The premise is utterly absurd, and extremely disrespectful toward Doolittle. He was quite literally one of the very best pilots of those two decades. And an expert on aircraft performance and design.
It's both ludicrous and hilarious for Eric Brown to presume that he was in any position to lecture Doolittle about aircraft.
Like Formula one with no license requirements. Well represented in Flight Simulator, but perhaps not as sturdy in the Simulator. I had one rip at only 267 knots ias.
Isn't that Delmar's R2?
Yes
Ah, the old disproved “gas cap” theory 🙄. You failed to mention other pilots that flew the R1 and R2 without incident. Russel Boardman test flew the R1 multiple times before the Thompson race without incident. Lee Gelbach flew the R2 the entire 1932 season without incident. Also upset you never mentioned the R2 replica and Delmar Benjamin
Doolittle didn’t design the Super Solution or the retractable gear. The designer, Matty Laird did.
Russel Boardman was to race the R1 in 1932 but was injured after he was thrown from his horse.
You keep mentioning the R1 had more HP than the Z however they had the same engine. (The 985 was removed and the 1340 installed for the world land plane speed record) The Z actually had a higher power to weigh ratio than the R1.
Grantville brothers?
Granville
Very good presentation but Im confused to a slight degree ? The Plane pictured ? I know who it belonged to and who flew it ! Delmar Benjamin of Shelby Mt, here is the video I shot at a local airshow he put on back in 1992 in Shelby. th-cam.com/video/s8-UM87iyY8/w-d-xo.html
Red Bull isn’t air racing
Red Bull is the herpes of aerosports.
It's more like Autocross. But it is competition, and very interesting to watch.
That's not true! The reason for Bales crash was "aileron flutter" which the plane was susceptible too above 250 mph. The left wing departs his aircraft and spins violently into the ground killing him in a huge ball of fire. Moral of that story was don't try to set a land speed record in an airplane on a windy or gusty day.
Thumbs down!