From the era when flying was done by the “seat of the pants”, this was an airplane that required to be “flown by the numbers”, probably a concept not yet envisioned. Amazing performance. Amazing piloting.
I swear - I don't think Ive ever laughed so hard seeing your post. I read the first part without reading the second part. It took me more than a minute to recover from the yes. It took more even more to recover from the no... My head hurts now!!!
What an absolute gem of replica engineering! Great video as well, capturing the high torque of that monster engine during the takeoff and landing roll. Obviously a very talented pilot.
There was a great line in a book I had about this plane: Zantford "Granny" Granville (the plane's chief designer) hoped it would reach 300mph. Others, accustomed to more traditional designs, merely hoped it would fly."
I really loved watching Delmar fly that aircraft several times over the years. He really had his hands full with that machine. Very quirky flight characteristics....
Incroyable, du fait de son architecture et de sa destination : avion de course, je croyais que cet avion ne pouvait voler qu'en ligne droite mais pas faire des acrobaties ! Incredible, because of its architecture and its destination: racing plane, I believed that this plane could only fly in a straight line but not perform stunts !
It barely even looked like a plane. So the early pilots had to be nuts. Looks like the modern pilots are a bit nuts too, lol. Great aerobatics and incredible aircraft.
@@MrDriftspirit my brother and i used to build plastic model kits and balsa and tissue covered planes and power them with the small cox motors and we were both in the air force after high school. i'm 71 yrs old.
Merci Mr Gernot pour cette vidéo!!! J'étais également présent à la Ferté en 1996 et je peus attester que: 1 - La météo était plus que limite 2 - Delmar Benjamin avait réalisé une démo incroyable avec sa réplique de Gee Bee!!!
J'y étais également et ça fait partie de mes trois grands souvenirs de la ferté-alais avec le touch and go du b17 pink Lady et le vol simultané de plusieurs Spitfires super marine😃
@@donviitoriodasicachiavi5555 its like this plane is gum stuck to your shoe, .you'll never get rid of it, and you always get somebody thinking they're going to tame the beast only to find out they cant. If they're lucky they'll regret it if not they go into a 6 foot hole
superbe cette vidéo. Je n'aurais pas cru voir ça après ce que j'avais lu sur cet (très bel) avion qui causa la perte de nombreux pilotes malgré des performances évidentes. Merci.
@@antonkruseandersen5654 The Rocketeer, in capitals, I presume? Buy the way, you can "edit" your own comments. When you keep doing a typo in every single text....
I was not prepared for the sheer amount of power this plane had inside... it looks so cute and then it looks like half of the roll rate or more is basically just prop inertia doing its best to flip the damn thing... respect to that pilot :D
I SAW THIS AIRCRAFT AT THE RENO AIR RACES AND BOB HOOVER WAS ALSO THER IN HIS TWIN ENGINE SHRIKE I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW THE PILOT SAT JUST IN FRONT OF THE REAR AIRDERLON AND HOW BIG THAT ENGINE WAS I THINK 12 CYLINDER RECIPROCATING WITH A SOUND OF ITS OWN THAT RATTLED YOUR BONES AS IT MADE ITS PASSES
@@trooperdgb9722 Losing a wing?! It has struts and double steel wire! That plane can't possibly lose a wing! How did they do that? Pull out the bolts during flight? What a weird story! Was it a stunt?
Why does it have such a small engine? It needs half a runway, it hardly climbs, roll rate is half an hour or so. I'd expect more of an aerobatic plane. Or is NR 2101 just a "tame & slow" version?
@@voornaam3191 Google "Gee Bee Racer Crash 1931." Its on bloody film (as I said)..watch it yourself! Why the doubt? You think machines can't fail? Racing aircraft have ALWAYS had a poor safety record...
Love Gee Bee! I have not before seen footage of flight. Spectacular! The pilot is working her. Pretty fast on final. Not my cup of tea to ever be strapped into her, but what a demonstration! Exceptional.
I seem to remember reading that the R1 and the R2 were surprisingly stable (admittedly mentioned to be more pleasant to fly when upside down than right way up). But after they crashed, a Frankenstein style job was pulled off where parts from both planes were cannibalized to try create a new plane, which was incredibly unstable and only ventured far enough off the ground to provide enough altitude to crash
I think that Rickenbacker flew one of these and said it was the scariest plane he ever landed and couldn't wait to get out of it. The pilot was unable to see anything in front of him on takeoff until he got the tail in the air (at which point there wasn't much you could do to correct anyway.)
Doolittle set a record in this plane and loved it. Every pilot thereafter didn't have the same luck. This plane was dangerous with a very bad reputation.
I saw Delmar Benjamin fly that at the Arlington, WA. airshow way back. I talked to him a little bit. He was so cool that James Dean would wish he was Delmar. If you remember James Dean, man, you're old.
Ive seen this fly at an air show in Frederick Maryland many years ago. Back in the 30s Jimmy Doolittle was the only guy who flew one without crashing. We know a lot more about aerodynamics now. Still takes some balls to fly it.
Je me souviens du Gee Bee sautillant sur les mottes d'herbe de l'aérodrome de Cerny, juste avant de décoller. Je me suis dit : "Ce truc va se vautrer dès que le pilote mettra les gaz" ! Autre moment fort : l'attéro, à une vitesse stupéfiante. Machine réservée à une catégorie très spéciale de pilotes, possédant, outre la science du pilotage, des glandes en platine iridié...
i love their music, but flying this ? its cute but it will be a hard time....staying alive. holys--- that little plane has got some moves he came over the airfield like a russian MIG. A FANTASTIC PILOT.
The original Granville brothers were made of stern stuff ! Trust me they were. This was a flying engine , and the torque of the motor meant that the wing area couldn't cope when the throttle was suddenly opened. The plane just flipped over and crashed . The old footage shows this . Yet the brothers carried on . The aircraft were very fast , but LETHAL . Many people bought the farm in these things . The Right Stuff indeed.
There used to be film footage on RUclips of a GeeBee crash, I think in Cleveland, immediately after a National Air Race in the 1930s. I think the story was that the owner had hired Jimmy Doolittle to fly the plane in the race. He did, and may well have won the race. I can't recall. Later that day, Doolittle returns the plane to the owner so the owner can fly it back to his home. The film shows the takeoff and an immediate vicious snap roll into the ground from perhaps 50 feet in altitude. All hands lost. The center of gravity in that plane was so far forward, it's a wonder anyone could handle it. Nothing quite like the hum of a big radial engine. The film might still be on here. I haven't looked.
Z. Granville to Pete Miller (engineer): "I want 3 things ... a tiny airplane attached the biggest radial engine you can find and some lunatic to fly it."
I built a scale model of the Gee Bee racer, 1/48 scale. My mom said it looked dumb. I told her it's the plane Jimmy Doolittle set the world speed record with but she still wasn't impressed.
This is not only not supposed to be able to fly but the pilot seems to want take the piss out of me for thinking that by stunting around! This plane is amazing, I love it!
To me, this design always looked like an engine with a bit of aeroplane attached to it..
It is! 🤣
If the GeeBee were created after the war it does thanks to aluminum shortage... But it was created Before the II War, there's no explication to do...
of course . this aircraft, was made for air races
Das is Kurt flugzeuge
That was the principle idea behind this design
More motor less airplane more speed and performance
Living proof of the statement that anything flies if provided with sufficient power....
What is the glide ratio? 1:1?
It's really not that dramatic.
Straight down,
Yes
Yes sir, and the good news is, for the best glide ratio, it goes supersonic! And inverted, of course.
Just kidding!
Its definitely not 1:1.
I would say its in the region of 15:1
From the era when flying was done by the “seat of the pants”, this was an airplane that required to be “flown by the numbers”, probably a concept not yet envisioned. Amazing performance. Amazing piloting.
"How big of an engine do you want?"
"Yes."
"Umm..how big do you want the plane?"
"No."
There is no replacement for displacement. If some is good and more is better, then too much will be just enough. Haha.
@@andybailey6763 I can't argue with that logic!! I agree 100% 😂
I swear - I don't think Ive ever laughed so hard seeing your post. I read the first part without reading the second part. It took me more than a minute to recover from the yes. It took more even more to recover from the no... My head hurts now!!!
@@danherrick5785 I'm glad I could entertain you so well 😂
Cartoon aeroplane....damn,,,it flew!!!!
What an absolute gem of replica engineering! Great video as well, capturing the high torque of that monster engine during the takeoff and landing roll. Obviously a very talented pilot.
One of my first plastic models I built was of this thing. Loved it. Knew nothing about it but it was cool to a little kid.
Never would have imagined this thing can actually fly
🤔🤣❤️🇧🇩
Anything can fly, providing that it has enough power.
Even a lawnmower, yes, that happened. Look it up!
Like a bumblebee. But then since a fully loaded c5 cargo plane can fly, I guess anything can.
There was a great line in a book I had about this plane:
Zantford "Granny" Granville (the plane's chief designer) hoped it would reach 300mph. Others, accustomed to more traditional designs, merely hoped it would fly."
I really loved watching Delmar fly that aircraft several times over the years. He really had his hands full with that machine. Very quirky flight characteristics....
The Gee Bee is part of aeronautic history
Incroyable, du fait de son architecture et de sa destination : avion de course, je croyais que cet avion ne pouvait voler qu'en ligne droite mais pas faire des acrobaties ! Incredible, because of its architecture and its destination: racing plane, I believed that this plane could only fly in a straight line but not perform stunts !
It barely even looked like a plane. So the early pilots had to be nuts. Looks like the modern pilots are a bit nuts too, lol. Great aerobatics and incredible aircraft.
Pure design by a genius. Can’t imagine this will fly.
Cuando era pequeño armé la réplica de este avión, me encantaba! Hoy tengo 72
Yes, we saw this superb animal and we hope qu 'il will come back... Thank you for your comment
Whoever is piloting that is very good
I saw this airplane back in the 1990's at an air show in central Iowa. It's an incredible airplane and pilot.
"No way I'm flying that thing!"--Wiley E. Coyote
He flew only Acme certified airplanes.
@@main199 or a flying anvil
That makes two of us
@@andrij3078 Anvil? Why not Hammer? At least have elongate tail
Amen!
i remember this funny looking plane from my airplane books when i was a kid.
Nice to read that there where more who remember to those picture technic books...how old are you now?
I am 45..
Greeting
@@MrDriftspirit my brother and i used to build plastic model kits and balsa and tissue covered planes and power them with the small cox motors and we were both in the air force after high school. i'm 71 yrs old.
@@MrDriftspirit I'm 25 and also remember getting those awesome technical drawing books of warplanes as a kid
The "If it looks right it is right" rule seems to have been temporarily suspended!
I was there that day with my wife up on the stands. An absolutely amazing event I will never forget even if it rained cats, dogs and elephants.
Merci Mr Gernot pour cette vidéo!!!
J'étais également présent à la Ferté en 1996 et je peus attester que:
1 - La météo était plus que limite
2 - Delmar Benjamin avait réalisé une démo incroyable avec sa réplique de Gee Bee!!!
I born years after this happened, so I never got to see it unfortunately.
J'y étais également et ça fait partie de mes trois grands souvenirs de la ferté-alais avec le touch and go du b17 pink Lady et le vol simultané de plusieurs Spitfires super marine😃
General Jimmy Doolittle flew these plane in the 1930s, alot of experienced pilots didnt survive this plane
But this plane Survive somehow no matter what happens to the pilots
@@donviitoriodasicachiavi5555 its like this plane is gum stuck to your shoe, .you'll never get rid of it, and you always get somebody thinking they're going to tame the beast only to find out they cant. If they're lucky they'll regret it if not they go into a 6 foot hole
@@willielarimer7170 Lucky pilots on board of Bee 🐝 Gee? Unfortunate unhappy peoples.
Even Howard Hughes flew one...
@@donviitoriodasicachiavi5555 Its a replica.
superbe cette vidéo. Je n'aurais pas cru voir ça après ce que j'avais lu sur cet (très bel) avion qui causa la perte de nombreux pilotes malgré des performances évidentes. Merci.
This plane was designed for racing. What a great video! It is one of my dreams to build a r/c ¼ scale version. Triple thanks for posting this!
Good Luck Guy
Same here, and I don't even fly. Imagine a large scale big Moki radial, those sound incredible!
@@blkft Oh yes they do! Now where did I put that five grand I'm not using?
@@backpages1 I know, Brutha! I guess if I sold ALL my other hobbies interest then I could afford one?😬😁
Wow, that pilot has very big balls flying that replica GeeBee in those maneuvers and speeds!
Looks like something straight out of a Tintin book.
Or from the movie the rockteer
The Rocketeer
@@antonkruseandersen5654 The Rocketeer, in capitals, I presume? Buy the way, you can "edit" your own comments. When you keep doing a typo in every single text....
@@voornaam3191 Thank You.
Or... Moebius (Jean Giraud drawing).
Saw this plane in the San Diego Air and Space Museum last week and just stumbled upon this video today. Cool to actually see it fly
The gee bee is one of my favorite planes in the world and i think it is a beautiful plane.
Прикольный, весёлый самолётик и ещё фигуры пилотажа делает 👍👍👍🤗😊
Мультилет из японского мультика, когда из него вышел человек я думал выйдет покимон
All engine with some wings for good measure!
Truly amazing it can fly so well all things considered.
Very nice.🙂👍
I thought el chupacabra from pixar 'planes' is a comical characterization of a corsair that got fat. Its damn real.. thank you for uploading this!
I was not prepared for the sheer amount of power this plane had inside... it looks so cute and then it looks like half of the roll rate or more is basically just prop inertia doing its best to flip the damn thing... respect to that pilot :D
merci de revoir ce moment care j'était la j'ai même acheter son pins tout le monde debout pour voir son atterrissage fabuleux ce vol !
Oui, un moment exceptionnel, car à ma connaissance le GEE BEE n'est jamais revenu en France.
+Jean-Claude Gernot hélas oui !
I SAW THIS AIRCRAFT AT THE RENO AIR RACES AND BOB HOOVER WAS ALSO THER IN HIS TWIN ENGINE SHRIKE I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW THE PILOT SAT JUST IN FRONT OF THE REAR AIRDERLON AND HOW BIG THAT ENGINE WAS I THINK 12 CYLINDER RECIPROCATING WITH A SOUND OF ITS OWN THAT RATTLED YOUR BONES AS IT MADE ITS PASSES
Rear airderlon. Moron.
@@roknrony Probably a typo, $#°£ for brains.
Doolittle once stated that there were no dangerous aircraft, just unforgiving aircraft. And the Gee Bee was the most unforgiving he'd ever flown.
Thats one scary looking aircraft. And I can't help but see in my mind the famous film of one losing a wing and violently spinning into the ground...
@@trooperdgb9722 Losing a wing?! It has struts and double steel wire! That plane can't possibly lose a wing! How did they do that? Pull out the bolts during flight? What a weird story! Was it a stunt?
Why does it have such a small engine? It needs half a runway, it hardly climbs, roll rate is half an hour or so. I'd expect more of an aerobatic plane. Or is NR 2101 just a "tame & slow" version?
@@voornaam3191 Google "Gee Bee Racer Crash 1931." Its on bloody film (as I said)..watch it yourself! Why the doubt? You think machines can't fail? Racing aircraft have ALWAYS had a poor safety record...
@@trooperdgb9722 Watched that crash several times, horrible.
Love these odd 20's and 30's airplanes. Only problem with watching them is, I cant stop sing the theme to Tail Spin.🤣
Friends for life, through thick and thin
With another tale to spin
Met one of the two Granville brothers at Rhinebeck
air show. A very mild-mannered man, willing to stop and talk with this humble 🇨🇱 Texan!!
Texas hee haw
Love Gee Bee! I have not before seen footage of flight. Spectacular! The pilot is working her. Pretty fast on final. Not my cup of tea to ever be strapped into her, but what a demonstration! Exceptional.
Very bold pilot! Those things were as dangerous as a cornered cat.
I seem to remember reading that the R1 and the R2 were surprisingly stable (admittedly mentioned to be more pleasant to fly when upside down than right way up). But after they crashed, a Frankenstein style job was pulled off where parts from both planes were cannibalized to try create a new plane, which was incredibly unstable and only ventured far enough off the ground to provide enough altitude to crash
Delmar Benjamin flew his replica for 10 years or more, proving that it was safe to fly. I saw it fly in 1992 & 1999. Love this airplane!
@@d-m8529 You are lucky to have seen her fly, twice in your lifetime!
With "sufficient" Horsepower, anything can fly!
la de da de da.. the same old. Not true. The Gee Bee may look unusual but it is perfectly normal aerodynamically.
@@mjd4174 you kidding me?
@Guy Skeet. 🦋? 🦋
@Daniel Rodriguez Or lift.
Attach enough engines , you can make a house fly
I think that Rickenbacker flew one of these and said it was the scariest plane he ever landed and couldn't wait to get out of it. The pilot was unable to see anything in front of him on takeoff until he got the tail in the air (at which point there wasn't much you could do to correct anyway.)
Doolittle set a record in this plane and loved it. Every pilot thereafter didn't have the same luck. This plane was dangerous with a very bad reputation.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.
Greets from the Netherlands, T.
What a show! Nice flying too! Give that man a tall glass of beer!
Très semblable au Polikarpov soviétique du début de la WWII. Toujours impressionnant à voir voler et quelle sonorité !
Torque rolls didn't need much aileron input, just let that big radial do it's thing. Brave pilot.
Yea...Pretty much just let go of the stick...lol
I saw Delmar Benjamin fly that at the Arlington, WA. airshow way back. I talked to him a little bit. He was so cool that James Dean would wish he was Delmar. If you remember James Dean, man, you're old.
Whoever was the first to fly this thing had FAITH for real
+Reginald Ford Hahahaha, you couldnt be more right
James Doolittle?
Ha talk about "A wing and a prayer" 0:)
I think Jimmy Doolittle was the only pilot who regularly flew one that the GeeBee's didn't kill - they were absolutely lethal machines!
Those magnificent men in their flying machines I’m guessing….haha
Ive seen this fly at an air show in Frederick Maryland many years ago. Back in the 30s Jimmy Doolittle was the only guy who flew one without crashing. We know a lot more about aerodynamics now. Still takes some balls to fly it.
That would have been amazing if they added an airplane to that engine!
Je me souviens du Gee Bee sautillant sur les mottes d'herbe de l'aérodrome de Cerny, juste avant de décoller. Je me suis dit : "Ce truc va se vautrer dès que le pilote mettra les gaz" ! Autre moment fort : l'attéro, à une vitesse stupéfiante. Machine réservée à une catégorie très spéciale de pilotes, possédant, outre la science du pilotage, des glandes en platine iridié...
I love this airplane. It makes me happy.
Excellent video. The Gee Bee was an icon ☆
Amazing piloting skills great video thanks guys
I got a Christmas given to me on Christmas long ago. It's my favorite one .
That pilot had a brass set!
That plane is hysterical! Love it
Very impressive aircraft, and piloting, just so cool.
Thank you Frederico, happy that you like these images.
Everyone in 1st minute: That thing CAN’T FLY
Pilot : LOOK at my BALLS ⚽️ ⚽️
Die Gee Bee ist das seltsamste Flugzeug, das auch fliegen kann, extrem wendig wunderbar
Huge respect to the pilot
That Pilot has some skills! What a mad man.
surprising it could get off the ground with the weight of those balls
Thanks for the excellent video, and a double thanks for not putting in some cheesy music.
One of my favorite plans as a kid
Now, THIS is a true “pocket rocket“!
I’m surprised you could even see the runway to get off the ground the angle that sits at 🙈
Imagine landing it.
Camera
Самый странный самолёт, что я видел. Но ещё больше меня удивило, что он летает.
Я бы не полетел на этом недоразумении...
Похоже к мотору крылья приебенили... 🤣🤣🤦🏻♂️
Это раньше И-16 был
Не удивлюсь, если он зависнет как вертолет.
А меня удивляет как пилот видит куда ему ехать?)
i love their music, but flying this ? its cute but it will be a hard time....staying alive. holys--- that little plane has got some moves he came over the airfield like a russian MIG. A FANTASTIC PILOT.
I Still own n Fly my 1/3 Scale RC Gee Bee plane 👍👍😎
Its an awesome model plane to Fly ✈
Amazig looking aircraft.
You'd think it would have the words 'airshow disaster' attached to every video.
A beautiful little aeroplan ! :) Formidable K
That is literally flying an engine. Terrifying....
Aerodynamically, one of the most incredibly designed aircraft ever......
This looks like it was designed by some engineer that was inspired by a bumblebee. Needs black and yellow paint job.
Take a look at the Granville brothers Gee Bee Model Z.
The original Granville brothers were made of stern stuff ! Trust me they were. This was a flying engine , and the torque of the motor meant that the wing area couldn't cope when the throttle was suddenly opened. The plane just flipped over and crashed . The old footage shows this . Yet the brothers carried on . The aircraft were very fast , but LETHAL . Many people bought the farm in these things . The Right Stuff indeed.
Похож на И - 16 , страдающий ожирением в крайней стадии :-))
Трансгендер?
@@ИАП738 не видит. На всех самолётах того времени не видно было. По боковому пейзажу ориентировались. Впереди мёртвая зона.
Бройлер Членолет но маневренный.
На су57 по маневренности)
По-моему, это похоже на летающий член. Но мысль, в общем, интересная.
Precioso aparato. Parece y suena como una abeja. Buena velocidad y muy maniobrable. 🤠💯
There used to be film footage on RUclips of a GeeBee crash, I think in Cleveland, immediately after a National Air Race in the 1930s.
I think the story was that the owner had hired Jimmy Doolittle to fly the plane in the race. He did, and may well have won the race. I can't recall.
Later that day, Doolittle returns the plane to the owner so the owner can fly it back to his home. The film shows the takeoff and an immediate vicious snap roll into the ground from perhaps 50 feet in altitude. All hands lost.
The center of gravity in that plane was so far forward, it's a wonder anyone could handle it. Nothing quite like the hum of a big radial engine.
The film might still be on here. I haven't looked.
Bravo Maestro !
Merci
Beautiful is an understatement.
Z. Granville to Pete Miller (engineer): "I want 3 things ... a tiny airplane attached the biggest radial engine you can find and some lunatic to fly it."
...to die in it.
I had a toy model of this plane as a kid. I totally dismissed it as being fictional. I'm impressed to see otherwise now!
I built a scale model of the Gee Bee racer, 1/48 scale. My mom said it looked dumb. I told her it's the plane Jimmy Doolittle set the world speed record with but she still wasn't impressed.
Super cool!
It's obvious that this thing is incapable of flight, so well done to the guy who created the computer generated graphics - very realistic!
when Gee Bee flying the song from Bee Gee...Staying Alive...should be playing.
Can you imagine wriggling out the side door to bail out?
This is one of only few aircraft I never want to fly with.
I thought they stopped building them because they were dangerous
Very good pilot with nerves of steel
Can’t believe it flies!
The ‘Viper V10 stuffed into a classic Mini”
of planes…
I have one on a stand, sitting on top of my computer desk...
... and it crashed.
The only place to go from here is to put a seat on a Merlin engine and crank it.
Pilot Visibility on the ground ?? And when final approaching! Jeeze!
Виртуоз! Рисовый парень!
Brutally and dangerous Bee!
Before the era of video games and lawsuits people actually did amazing things in ridiculous devices.
Very happy to see a video of the real one and not of the, even if wonderful, rc model. Thank you!
This is not only not supposed to be able to fly but the pilot seems to want take the piss out of me for thinking that by stunting around! This plane is amazing, I love it!
I saw the gee bee at Jack london Square when I was little