Granville (Gee Bee) Racing Gyroplane of 1935

[jzichek]

Check out this short entry at RetroMechanix.com on the Granville Racing Gyroplane project of 1935:

The study appears to be a conversion of the Gee Bee R-1/R-2 Senior Sportster hybrid into a two-place autogyro. The drawing is from a clipping found in a NACA file at National Archives II in College Park, MD and apparently originates from the February 1935 issue of Aero Digest. Unfortunately, the clipping did not include a caption or article giving further details on the type. If anyone has the full article or additional information on this study, feel free to respond here or on my site.


-Jared

 

[Stargazer]

Fantastic concept! Makes for a much safer aircraft... and a nice subject for a plastic model! I believe the racing performance would have suffered somehow from the drag induced by the rotor and the added weight.

Jared, I have taken the liberty of reworking the original art and turn it into a more compact plan so I can post it on the What If modellers forum. I hope you don't mind!

 

[Nik]

Wow !! It could have set off a few what-if butterflies...


I wonder what its top speed, climb-rate and handling would have been like...

 

[Stargazer]

There probably isn't much interest on this forum for such vintage projects, because no-one commented on the fact that the picture I had posted was faulty. Anyway, I have replaced it with a corrected version WITHOUT all the gray patches.

 

[Hardrada55]

Reminds me of this

 

[Stargazer]

Very nice! Thanks Hardrada for sharing!

 

[jzichek]

That's a good reworking of the original drawing, Stephane. I just hope someone with access to the Feb. 1935 issue of Aero Digest can shed more light on this interesting study!

 

[theponja]

There probably isn't much interest on this forum for such vintage projects, because no-one commented on the fact that the picture I had posted was faulty.

Hey ... you just give us some hours ... we can be online always Nice draw by the way.

Very interesting. Could be good to know the origins of idea for a racer-copter.

 

[VictorXL188]

Well I have had access to the relevant issue of Aero Digest and I have good and bad news. The good news is the Gee Bee gyroplane derivative GA is there, as per my attachment. The bad news is the article does not refer to said GA in any form, and is instead a round up of the progress made at that time in the field of gyroplanes. I also attach the relevant three pages of said magazine for your perusal. I hope this does not contrivine any copyright as the article is nearly 90 years old!!