AIRPLANE CRASH OF GEE BEE RACER, 1931

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Category:

Education

Tags:

• GEE BEE RACER AIRCRAFT CRASH
• EXPLOSION
• AIRPLANE
• PILOT

[Camerameister1]

@az308gts Very difficult to say at this resolution but I think I probably agree. First time I've seen this too.

[az308gts]

It's very interesting to finally see this video. I've been a loyal fan of the Granville Brothers since I was a very little child. It was the aerial photographs of this crash site that rivited my attention. I've heard all of the theory's about why this crash happened and my very first reaction after seeing this video is it was caused by a g-force induced stress failure. The short quick DOWN then UP right before the wing comes off. Maybe the pilots reaction to the cap? A fatal reaction?

[Bellerspitts]

"Whattaya say we try for a cantalever wing,boys?".

[bigdodgeaus]

I think if you watch the slo motion part of this film, it looks more like a flying wire snapped or an aileron suffered from flutter and the wing broke in half. The theory of the oil cap or gas cap coming off sounds ok until you realise that the cap would have been doing the same speed as the cockpit or just slightly slower. When this hit the windscreen it would have just gone down the side with hardly ant effect at all.

[mvenshnop]

@syntaur yes but most people aren't flying at 300mph everyday. . thats a pretty specific moment.

[boingkster]

@masmddds Yes, many radial engined planes were very successful in WWII; the Grumman F6F, P-47 Thunderbolt and Focke Wulf 190 cheif amongst them. Regardless, the reasons I mentioned were indeed among those given for the H-1 being turned down for military use. In essence, it was too ground breaking for the US military to consider its use.

[masmddds]

@boingkster

I agree with you that the GB designs were too unstable for military use. They were, after all, built for speed. Not for maneuverability or carrying weapons. That, and the cockpit was small and the visibility from it was probably lousy. But your statements pertaining to the Hughes H-1 (and comparison to the GBZ) are inaccurate. The GBs were very short-coupled aircraft. H-1 wasn’t. Besides, there were plenty of radial-powered monoplanes used successfully in WW2.

[Phantomrig]

was this at Cleveland Hopkins?

[fastone942]

thanks for the clip

[okmer333]

The 1932 R-1 and its sister ship, the R-2, were the successors of the previous year's Thompson Trophy-winning Model Z. It was suspected by a few that the Model Z's crash during a speed run in December 1931 was due to an unexpected failure of the gasoline tank cap, which may have been ripped off of the fuel tank filler tube by the aerodynamic boundary layer of air immediately over the surface of the aircraft's fuselage, resulting in the now-airborne gas cap smashing into the pilot's face