Gee Bee Ascender

Ascender 1931 = 1pChwM; 26hp Aeronca E-107 pusher; span: 38'0" length: 19'0" to 23'3" (uncertain); ff: 12/1/31 (p: Z Granville). Zantford Granville, Robert Hall. Canard configuration with a forward rudder and elevator; used extended Aeronca wings. POP: 1 [X757N] c/n Q-1, claimed to have been built in about one week at a cost of $500. Crashed in a low-level spin on 1/1/32 and was scrapped (more)

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Gee
• Bee
• Q-1
• Ascender
• X757N
• Zantford
• Granville
• Robert
• Hall
• canard
• aircraft
• airplane
• aviation
• history

[marick626]

I would have loved to be alive in those days and experience flight in one of those primitive machines without the hassles and limitations of the radio or complying with regulations. Do what you want, when and how you want. No instruments, no nothing. Just you and the airplane.

[bkayefoo]

Excelent!

[rcskypilot]

Bob Hall designed the Gee Bee Z with Granny, and later, after he left, he designed the Bulldog racer, which was also a unique aircraft.

I was just listening to this video again, and I really get a kick out of Granny's Down-easter accent. I'm from Maine, where you can still hear it occasionally.

[mwmaxwgreen]

I notice that they called it a tail firster, instead of the name, which was an allusion to ass-ender.

[JBofBrisbane]

@marick626 - get yourself an utralight or powered hang glider, and knock yourself out.

[rcskypilot]

That's Granny Granville himself talking and flying the Ascender, or as his brothers and he liked to call it for fun; The Ass-ender. It was built by the youngest Granville brother, Edward, from the parts of a dismantled, aeronca, I believe. Edward himself crunched it. going too slow in a bank, and spun it in. He banged his tailbone pretty bad and felt it for quite a while.The others bult him a trophy made from some of the bent-up tubings, though nobody seems to know where it went. Priceless!

[Nastyswimmer]

A wierd beast indeed, but the description is wrong. Yes it's a canard, so the elevator is in front, but the rudder is to the rear and the prop isa tractor, not a pusher

[yekralleahcim]

That guy was way ahead of his time.

[deemilieu]

it looks like wreck waiting to happen.

[AmusedChild]

Gotta love the Gee Bee!

[1lapdown]

Your correct, it was Donald Hall who was the Spirit's designer.

[glenrait]

@1lapdown No, actually, Bob Hall did not design the Spirit of St. Louis. He was with the Granville Brothers, then went to Stinson and was for years with Grumman.