GeeBee R3 Fantasy Racer

About

The real Gee Bee racers — the Super Sportster R-1 and R-2 — were built in 1932 by Granville Brothers Aircraft of Springfield, Massachusetts. "Gee Bee" simply stands for Granville Brothers. After winning the 1931 Thompson Trophy with their Model Z, brothers Zantford "Granny" Granville and chief engineer Howell "Pete" Miller wind-tunnel-tested a radical new approach at NYU under Professor Alexander Klemin: a teardrop-shaped fuselage actually wider than the engine cowling at its broadest point, designed to minimize drag at race speeds. The result was one of the most distinctive — and most dangerous — aircraft of the golden age of air racing.

The R-1, piloted by Jimmy Doolittle, won the 1932 Thompson Trophy and set a Federation Aéronautique Internationale landplane speed record of 294.4 mph in the Shell Speed Dash. The sister R-2 used a smaller Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior radial and carried more fuel for cross-country racing. Doolittle famously described the R-1 as "balancing a pencil or an ice cream cone on the tip of your finger" — fast, but "a touchy and probably unpredictable airplane." Most original Gee Bees were eventually lost in fatal crashes, cementing the type's reputation as the deadliest of the air-racing era. The Gee Bee silhouette returned to popular consciousness in 1991 when Disney's The Rocketeer featured a flying replica — and around the same time, airshow pilot Delmar Benjamin proved the type could actually be flown safely, taking his hand-built R-2 replica around the U.S. airshow circuit through the 1990s without incident.

This RC model is labeled the "R3 Fantasy Racer" — a fictional R-3 that never existed in reality. It's a sport-scale tribute to the unmistakable Gee Bee silhouette: short, fat fuselage, tiny wings, big radial up front, pilot pushed back near the tail. Treat it as a love-letter to Granville rather than a strict scale subject. RC scale Gee Bees in every size — from foam park-flyer to giant-scale gas — have been crowd favorites at fly-ins for the better part of thirty years, and the unmistakable Gee Bee shape sold in countless online RC kits today is a direct descendant of the 1932 Springfield originals.

In the simulator

Don't expect a docile aerobatic trainer — the R3 captures the spirit of the real Gee Bees, which means a short-coupled, twitchy aircraft that wants constant attention on the stick. Stalls happen quickly and roll authority is high. Reward is in the looks: low passes down a grass strip in a Gee Bee are theatre. Best for pilots who have already tamed the Decathlon and want something with attitude. Pairs well with classic grass strips and golden-age field landscapes. Keep approach speed up — the Gee Bee shape that gave it speed also gave it a wicked stall.