Granville Brothers Aircraft

Granville Brothers Aircraft was an aircraft manufacturer from 1929 until its bankruptcy in 1934 that was located at the Springfield Airport in Springfield, Massachusetts.[1] The Granville Brothers, Zantford, Thomas, Robert, Mark and Edward, are best known for the three Gee Bee Super Sportster racers, the Models Z, R-1 and R-2. Prior to building aircraft, Zantford ran a mobile aircraft repair service.

Granville Brothers Aircraft
TypeAircraft Manufacturer
IndustryAviation
FateBankrupt
SuccessorGranville, Miller & De Lackner
Founded1929
Defunct1934
HeadquartersSpringfield, Massachusetts
Key people
Zantford, Thomas, Robert, Mark, and Edward Granville
ProductsAircraft
Number of employees
12
Airworthy reproduction of the Gee Bee Model Z "City of Springfield" at the Museum of Flight in Seattle

Aircraft

Data from:Aerofiles[1] The Granville Brothers completed 25 aircraft of which only two original aircraft are known to still exist.[2]

Granville Brothers Model A
Model name Engine Date No. Notes
Model A (biplane) various 1929 9 Survivor at New England Air Museum
Model X Sportster Cirrus inline 1930 1 Entered Cirrus Derby[3]
Model B Sportster Cirrus inline 1930 1 Possibly to Spain for Spanish Civil War
Model C Sportster Menasco B-4 inline 1930 1 [4][5]
Model D Sportster Menasco C-4 inline 1931 1
Model E Sportster Scarab radial 1931 4 Wing at the EAA AirVenture Museum
Model YW Senior Sportster Warner Scarab radial 1931 1
Model YL Senior Sportster Lycoming R-680 radial 1931 1 Lycoming test bed, later fitted with Whirlwind
Model Z Super Sportster Wasp radial 1931 1 1931 Thompson Trophy winner
Model Q Ascender Aeronca twin 1931 1 Canard[6][7]
Model R-1 Super Sportster Wasp Sr./Hornet radials 1931 1 1932 Thompson Trophy winner
Set world speed record, Shell Speed Dash winner
Model R-2 Super Sportster Wasp Sr. radial 1931 1 Withdrew from 1933 Bendix
Tiger/Mickey Mouse Genet radial 1932 1 Designed by Ed Granville
Dismantled after a few flights[8][9]
Model R-3 Super Sportster Wasp Sr. radial 1933 1 R-1/R-2 Hybrid rebuilt from wreck
Named "Intestinal Fortitude"
Aeromobile Menasco Pirate inline (1933) 0 Roadable airplane
Model C-4 Fourster Wasp Jr. radial (1933) 0 4-seat airliner
Model C-6 Sixster unk. (1933) 0 6-seat airliner
Model C-8 Eightster Hornet radial (1933) 0 8-seat airliner
Model R-5 Hornet radial (1933) 0 Basis for R-6
Model R-6C Curtiss Conqueror V-12 (1934) 0 Completed as R-6H
Model R-6H Hornet radial 1934 1 "Q.E.D." built for MacRobertson Race
Set speed record as "Conquistador del Cielo"
Survivor in Mexican museum

Replica and reproduction Gee Bee aircraft
Airworthy Gee Bee R-2 Super Sportster replica at Fantasy of Flight

A Model E replica was flown and wrecked before being donated to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. Another Model E replica was being built in Australia.[10]

A replica of Florence Klingensmith's Model YL was completed in 1984 powered by a 300 hp (220 kW) Lycoming R-680.

A Model Z replica first flown in 1978 was used by the Walt Disney Company in the film The Rocketeer (1991), which is now on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. A second Gee Bee Z replica was sold to Fantasy of Flight.

The New England Air Museum and the San Diego Air & Space Museum have each completed replica R-1s with help from the Granville's under the agreement that the aircraft will never be flown. The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio also has an R-1 replica on display as of June 2018. The Springfield, Massachusetts Museum of Springfield History has a full size static fiberglass replica of the R-1 hanging in the atrium.[11] A Gee Bee R-2 Super Sportster replica flown extensively since 1991 is now at Fantasy of Flight.

A highly modified replica of the Gee Bee R-6 powered by a 1,425 hp (1,063 kW) Wright R-1820 Cyclone was first flown on 26 September 2013.

See also

References

Notes
  1. "Gee Bee". Aerofiles. 2008-10-23. Retrieved 2015-08-15.
  2. Graves, Darrell and Scott Brener. "The Granville Brothers Gee Bee." breners@aeroinc.com, D&C Aviation Limited, 1998. Retrieved: June 3, 2009.
  3. "Local Flier Killed in Crash at Detroit." Springfield Daily News, December 5, 1931. Retrieved: December 26, 2008.
  4. "The Gee Bee Sportsters - Holcomb's Aerodrome" The Gee Bee Sportsters - Holcomb's Aerodrome. Retrieved: October 22, 2009.
  5. "The Gee Bee Model's B,C,D & E" The Gee Bee Model's B,C,D & E. Retrieved: May 13, 2013.
  6. Harrison, Ronald W. Gee Bee Ascender, Journal AAHS Fall 1984, pp. 190–191.
  7. Hannan, Bill, le Gee Bee qui volait a l'envers, Le Fanatique de l' Aviation, No 161, page numbers unknown.
  8. Mendenhall, 1994, p.163
  9. Granville, 2000, pp.123-124
  10. "Dennis Emms Gee Bee "E" Model Project." Archived 2017-09-08 at the Wayback Machine rotecradialengines.com, Rotec Engineering. Retrieved: June 3, 2009.
  11. "Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History."springfieldmuseums.org. Retrieved: August 30, 2010.

Bibliography
  • Benjamin, Delmar and Steve Wolf. Gee Bee. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing Co., 1993. ISBN 0-87938-820-X.
  • Bowers, Pete M. The Gee Bee Racers — Number 51. Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1965.
  • Granville, J.I. Farmers Take Flight. Springfield, Massachusetts: Copy Cat Print Shop, 2000. ISBN 0-9702493-1-4.
  • Haffke, Henry A. Gee Bee: The Real Story of the Granville Brothers and Their Marvelous Airplanes.Colorado Springs, Colorado: VIP Publishers, Inc., 1989. ISBN 0-934575-04-5.
  • Mendenhall, Charles A. and Tom Murphy. The Gee Bee Racers: A Legacy of Speed. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press, 1994. ISBN 0-933424-05-1.
  • Schmid, S.H. and Truman C. Weaver. The Golden Age of Air Racing: Pre-1940, 2nd rev. edition (EAA Historical Series). Osceola, Wisconsin: MBI Publishing Co., 1991. ISBN 0-940000-00-8.
  • Those Incredible Gee Bees (VHS 60 min). Springfield, Massachusetts: Studio 16, 1992.
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