Love the Gee Bee. Beautiful plane. Great flying. Nice to see someone actually land it without nosing it over lol. Probably one of the most challenging planes to land. You made it look like a breeze. Great job.
You can imagine what it was like in all the airshow hospitality tents after the show with all the jet and warbird jockeys barely able to fit their egos into the tent, and then Delmar walks in and they all look at their shoes 😂
I can only imagine what it must have felt like to pilot one of those planes. Just a remainder - those were the fastest machines mankind had ever created, no human had ever gone this fast before. And these machines were dangerous. Very very dangerous.
Landing way too fast in my humble opinion .With my GeeBee you have to drag it in with the motor and the aircraft trimmed to land in a three pointer attitude .Wheelers are out !
I was at Falcon Field Mesa, AZ when they filmed this. I have to admit I was more enamored with Jennifer O'Neil ( I had crush on her and she was very nice) David Carradine was OK but a bit full of himself. He was very popular at that time so I guess it's understandable. It was great to see them working on this movie. A good memory......................
Nuestro gran piloto aviador mexicano héroe nacionl Francisco Sarabia Tinoco tubo un GB tendencia para dos pasajeros y lo llamo El Conquistador del Cielo, rompió récord en el vuelo México Nueva York en la década de los treinta del siglo pasado.
Everybody laughing, but you could feel the tension preflight...everyone well knew this flight may not go well, especially Delmar and his wife...they knew well that their embrace might be their last, and you could tell it...
Delmar flew into the Pocatello Id Airport one day in 1998 w/ the R2 to refuel, refresh and have a chat w/ my A&P instructor John Baken. They knew each other, John was the regional Experimental Aircraft Association's president and a Great representative of Idaho's "Get er Done" attitude. Delmar pulled up to our old B-17 Hanger/Classroom and when the side hatch opened his teen daughter stepped out first and then Delmar. I guess her seat was up against the Firewall, facing aft. (I'd have paid good Money to just Sit in that seat for a flight!) He was kind enough to allow some annoying questions from the eager students and while explaining the R2's flight characteristics he said to Never take off or land under 90 Kts. He also explained how he'd almost learned the hard way why so many of the Original Gee Bee's crashed in violent Snap Rolls back in the day. He said the Ailerons would bind up and lock in Hi G turns, and so the Replica was modified to remedy that problem. Delmar is a highly instinctual Pilot w/ Chuck Yeager like skills in the Pilots seat. It was a Real Treat to meet him !
What Kermit Weeks' aerodynamicist showed with flutter testing was even scarier.......from its onset, til total destruction , could be measured in probably less than two seconds.
Man explained what was wrong with the world in the first minute... Now today these idiot kids see idiots do idiot things on social media and run as fast as they can to mimic that stupidity.
What an eyecatcher. Wish Hollywood or Ken Burns would either do a motion picture or a documentary about the Granville brothers and the air races of the 20s and the 30s. I've got a little model of this plane I put together about 55 years ago. Number 11, NR2100.
In honor of these brave pilots who died flying this type of craft. Though some models were enhanced beyond the Granville brothers recommendations. Lowell R. Bayles... Dec. 5, 1931 Russell Boardman... July 2, 1933 Florence Klingensmith... Sept. 4, 1933 Cecil Allen... Aug. 30, 1935 Francisco Sarabia... June 7, 1939
