Gee Bee R-1
The Gee Bee R-1, also nick-named "Super Sportster", was a special purpose aircraft exclusively made for racing by Granville Brothers Aircraft (in fact Gee Bee stands for Granville Brothers). The aircraft had a very peculiar design, having its cockpit very far aft, just in front of the tail rudder. In
addition, the main body of the aircraft looked oversized compared to its small wings. It was, in effect, a big
engine with the minimum add-on fuselage in order to get it airborne. The R-1 won the 1932 Thompson Tropy race, piloted by Jimmy Doolittle. He also set a new
world landplane speed record of 296 mi/h (476 km/h) in the Shell Speed Dash. The distinction of a landplane record was noteworthy because at that time, specialized speed seaplanes outran landplanes.
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