Golden age of air racing:

Kermit has flown the Z:
I* flew this aircraft twice before deciding that I really wanted to know what caused the original aircraft to crash.*Having some experience with wing flutter before, I suspected that it might have been the cause.*I lost several friends because of it and, after reviewing the film footage of the original crash decided not to fly the aircraft again until it was tested. In the early 1930’s nothing was known about flutter.*It was the racing aircraft of the time that started to push the boundaries where flutter began to be a problem.*Leon Tolve came down before and did some work for me on aerobatic aircraft.*Leon, who was now almost 90, had been one of the primary flutter experts that tested all of our aircraft during World War II.*After several days of testing at Fantasy of Flight, he determined that the aircraft had a definite wing flutter problem above 240 mph.

To make the aircraft safe to fly, a specific amount of balance weight will have to be attached to each aileron spar at a specified location. These external weights will be mounted protrude beneath the wings and allow the aircraft to fly safely at speeds well over 300 mph. Solving one of aviations mysteries, we now know what happened to Bayles and the Gee Bee “Z”, as he was estimated to have been going over 300 mph when the wing came off!

 

What is that red thing around the tailwheel of the GB?

 

That is a fairing, a miniature wheel pant for the tail wheel. I assume that this is Delmar Benjamin's GB. I saw him fly this many times and this guy is an aerial magician, great pilot and gifted. Bob Hoover, Art Scholl, Chuck Lyford, and Delmar are the great pilots as far as I'm concerned. I wonder if the Laird Super Solution was the one built by Jim Moss from up this way.

 

I knew it was a fairing, I was just wondering why it looks like it was about to drag the ground...maybe the tail wheel is slightly retractable and it goes up with it to meet the fuselage?

 

I don't recall that the tail wheel was retractable, just short clearances.

 

That was my point (why bother with the tail wheel with fixed main gear) - but if not retractable, why the big air gap between the fairing and the fuselage?

 

On the Wiki page about Bayles, it states that the fuel-cap came off and entered the cockpit, incapacitating him. It is also stated that the aileron and wing were prone to flutter, but what would that have to do with wing failure if the pilot was incapacitated and the pitch-up (and subsequent folding) was a result of that fact?

 

This is what I recall as being the cause of Bayle's crash. The cap was supposed to have penetrated the windshield and struck him in the face. I think that flutter would have taken the wing off before the high speed roll started. I can't recall the name of the pilot who crashed his replica of Mr.Mulligan while on a low altitude speed run , killing him and his wife instantly when the airplane experienced flutter.

 

Thanks for posting these, Jim.

 

I'm no expert, but in this film of Bayles' crash it does look as though the right wing shears off just before the aircraft spins out of control. (Slow-motion replay at the end.)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KTyYVnSyq4&feature=related[/ame]

 

The tailwheel is backwards. The plane was backed into place.

Normally it would be swiveled 180 degrees and the clearance is less under the rudder.

 

Thanks, silly question, but it just looked funny.

 

Agree, looks funny. Took me a second to figure out what was wrong.

 

Great pics Gator, thanks for posting.
Those are some of the most beautiful planes of all time IMO.

 

While the collection Kermit Weeks put together is pretty awesome...
I wish he would put on display some of his sister's cars. She and her husband have a world-class collection of Ferraris, including a 250 GTO, '57 TR, 375+, 290 MM, SEFAC 250 SWB, TdF... you catch my drift?

 

Just for what it is worth, I have a book at home - "Weird Aircraft" by Peter Henshaw which has two photos (one of the real plane, one of this reproduction) - which verifies that the tailwheel is indeed backwards in the above shots.

Incidentally, the air pressure in flight pushes up the fairing and wheel so that it almost meets the fueslage at the rear, although there is a gap at rest on the ground.

The photo of the real plane is in flight during the Bendix Trophy race.

I also did not know that the famous Jimmy Doolittle flew this in the 1932 Thompson Trophy race, winning at 252 mph.

 

Doolittle was the only pilot at the time who flew the GB without killing himself. Delmar proved that " it was just another airplane." His words when I chatted with him in the Tri Cities Show in 1994. Crazy to see him flying inverted at 15 feet over the runway.

 

I guess that the demons lived after they put the 900hp engine in it, and it reached near 300mph or more. (Bendix Trophy Race, 1933)

R.I.P. Russell Boardman. And the Granville Brothers company.

 

I knewDat. I just remember that the airplane eventually killed everybody who flew it. Those were the most exciting days for a kid of 9 or 10 like I was and the Ike,Mike, Miss Los Angeles, Laird Super Solution, Hall racer, and the Wedell-Williams, were for the most part designed by home-grown engineers...Benny Howard, Steve Whitman, Gordon Isreal, and many others who were to eventually contribute great things in WW2.

 

Great pics - and interesting reading of the history.. thanks for posting up!

 

It is the very one. It was an "exciting" first flight to say the least. He's building a QED that is nearing completion.