Most of this article is viably the truth. One inconsistency is that the pilot killed at the Indianapolis takeoff was Russell Boardman and not BayLes as stated. I will explain the death of Lowell Bayles in a shortly. Russell Boardman was a wealthy record breaking distance pilot who took major stock control of the Gee Bee operation after the death of Lowell Bayles. Through his vested power, he appointed himself the 1932 race pilot for the Gee Bee R1 racer. Just before the Cleveland national races Boardman borrowed a Gee Bee commercial plane for transportation and in what was to be his potentially lethal style, hastily pulled the little Gee Bee off the ground too quickly, too steeply, stalled and spun the plane into the trees. He survived but would not heal in time to Race the R1 in the Thompson trophy at Cleveland. Jim Doolittle without a plane after crash landing his Super Solution race plane due to landing gear mechanical problems, was asked to race the Gee Bee R1 by Zantford Granville. The rest of the story for the 1932 Thompson is history. Boardman, after healing from his injuries set out in 1933 to race the R1 in both the Bendix long distance races and the Thompson pylon speed races. The R1 was now fitted with an even larger Pratt & Whitney Hornet Engine and extra fuel tanks needed for the Bendix. These changes did not sit well with engineer Pete Miller and Zantford Granville, but as it always does, money talks. In Indianapolis Boardman was agitated when his teammate Russell Thaw in the R2 racer damaged a wingtip upon landing. Boardman topped off the tanks of the big R1 and hastily pulled the laden ship into the air only using a fraction of the available and much needed runway. The big racer went into a stall, rolled on it’s back, and crashed. Boardman died later, marking the financial end and company control of the Gee Bees. One must remember these were, after all, race planes, and you don’t fly them like a trainer and you don’t win races with a trainer. Just like performance aircraft today, the racers of that period required skills that were only endowed to a few top notch pilots at the time. Poor pilot choices for whatever reasons and design changes beyond the Granville Brother’s control were apparently at fault in most, if not all cases from that point on.
I’ll get back to Lowell Bayles now. Bayles, like Doolittle was an extremely talented pilot. Slim, quite and well liked, he was a gracious aviation hero and icon. Bayles was killed in an attempt to break the world land speed record at the Wayne County airport in Michigan on Dec. 5, 1931. The Gee Bee “Z” model had been refitted with a 750 HP Pratt & Whitney Wasp R-1340. At the speeds being approached at the time a phenomenon known as aileron flutter caused handling and structural problems not then understood. It is theorized that Bayles was hit, stunned, or knocked unconscious by a gas cap that came loose and blew though the windscreen. This caused a radical movement of the controls causing in-flight structural failure. The fact that two young boys found the gas cap and Bayle’s goggles far from crash site leads to this conclusion. An exact replica of the Gee Bee “Z” was built by Kimball Enterprises and tested in the mid 1990’s. It was tested and found to have definite aileron flutter above 240 mph. Since Bayles was said to be doing 314 mph at the time it is possible that flutter alone could have been the problem. Zantford Granville, Gee Bee founder, was devastated as Lowell Bayles was seen as one of the Granville Bother’s to him. The Granville’s did not take risks and many other engineers and pilots of the time touted them as great airplane builders. I is the Media that created the “death trap” myth. Contrary to popular belief the Granville’s always had an aeronautical engineer (Bob Hall and Pete Miller) aiding design and for the famous 1932 R1 actually did wind tunnel testing in NY, a new technology at the time. They were not backyard builders. Later Gee Bee planes were extensively modified by third party owners of the planes against the wishes of the Granville’s and flown by less than the very best pilots. The inexperience in piloting and design changes, led to a series of crashes bringing bad press to and tarnishing the Granville name.

By Wayne on Feb 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm