THE
THOMPSON TROPHY
THE ORIGINS
The Thompson trophy traces its origin to the national Air races of 1929. These races were held at the airport of Cleveland, with bleachers for 50 000 people. Between the bleachers were 5 Story office buildings, with balconies for the VIP's ( see illustration ), and also the GQ of the imaginative organizen of this big fair, the tireless and convincing W. Henderson, alias Cliff.
With
the National Air Races, Henderson wanted to create a big commercial fair
and an event of national scope. And he succeded against all expection;
In Cleveland the planes were aligned at 150 meters intervals in front
of the bleachers for a simultaneous take off. After rounding a particular
pillar, they entered the triangular race track. There were all kind of
aerial acrobatics, a team of the canadian Air Force terrorized by buzzing
the most "blasé" spectators, the races included any type
imaginable plane.
There were night flights and also musical shows. A reporter wrote that
amricans had never seen anything comparable. In 1930, in Chicago, Cliff
Henderson applied the same formula as in Cleveland, while adding a supplementary
attraction. He convinced CHARLES THOMPSON, valve manufacturer and promotor
of the 1929 competition, to offer a trophy for a closed-circuit race with
all type of planes participating. This bronze widget symbolized speed
fever. The thompson Trophy, to be awarded the last day at the Curtiss-Reynolds
airport of Chicago, attracted two constructors decided to turn it into
a springboard to glory.
One of them, with a tiny monoplane named "Pete" built in his
spare time, managed to win five races in closed-circuit. The other hadn't
finished assembling all the parts of hid biplane, the "Solution",
in a wokshop in Ashburn near Chicago the morning of the race. "Pete's"
constructor was Benny Howard, and the unfinished "Solution"
was built by Emil Laird.
Laird
finished the preparation of his plane hardly one hour before the start.
The competitors were quite fearsome. Apart from the monoplane of Howard,
there were two "Travel Air" and one Curtiss from the Marine
Corps flown by the captain Arthur Page. The latter was leading 17 tours
out of 20. Then disaster strude. For reasons that remain in the dark,
the machine crashed killing the pilot; supposedly, he was asphixiated
by carbon oxide emanations.
Holman, winning with the "Solution" arrived at an average speed
of 322 km/h. Haizlip, with the "Travel Air" came second and
Howard was third with his tiny "Pete".
THE "GEE BEE" EPIC
Every pilot flying at more than 300 km/h and lower than 150 meters altitude defies death in case of engine failure or construction error, and at that time nothing was more dangerous than the very fast but unotable Gee Bee built in New England by the five Granville brothers. The planes, vaguely barrel shaped, very conspicious at the 1931 National Air Races, left a calamitous memory in the American legend.
Established
in Springfield, the Granville brothers created a small plane in 1922.
In the begining it sold, but the economic crisis killed the market for
small private machines. And the company faced difficulties. Bon Hall,
The chief engineer of the enterprise, suggested in 1931 to pull it trough
by constructing a competitive plane capable of winning prize money.
So the Springfield Air Racing association was born in Springfield and
Bob HAll found the funds needed to pay the employees by selling his shares.
The Granville brothers launched the construction of the "Z Model",
renamed "City of Spingfield". The first of the powerfull and
remarkable prototypes that would astonish the aviation circles.
To increase the speed Zantford Granville and his colleagues shortened the big body and the wings while augmenting the power. But this sole preference for speed generated an machine fraught with suicidal tendencies such as experienced by Jimmy Haizlip during a test flight that was also the last he tried with this type of machine :
-"I
got a first schock while I touched the rudder. The plane behaved like
biting its Tail. The second shock came while entering a curve. At a thirty
degrees angle the stick suddenly veered back to me; once again the plane
tried to bite its tail ! Nevertheless, I landed perfectly even though
it nosed up and stalled at 170 km/h. I felt at ease untill the trird landing.
I brushed the trees at 170 km/h, and at a moment I expected the wheels
to touch the ground, something toppled the left wing to touch the ground
and break. The two wheels broke also and the right wing dropped off. The
machine started rolling and when it finally stopped I awkwardly managed
to get out through the little escape hatch. And I stopped running only
after some 200 meters !
Lowell Bayles won 7500 $ withe the Gee Bee and the Thompson Trophy in 1931. He Had covered the five tours at an average of 378 km/h. 6000 inhabitants welcomed the Granville brothers like heros. They paraded the streets amidst loud applaus but the tragicalhistory of the "Gee Bee" just started. In september, in Detroit, Lowell Bayles lost control of his "Z Model" during a speed race. The machine crashed over almost one kilometer of railroad track. The body of the pilot was close to the burning wrack.
The two sportsters built subsequently by the Granville brothers flaunted the dream of any gambler; a pair of dices, 7 and 11; they certainly were the most dangerous machines ever to be flown...
JIMMY DOOLITTLE, A FIRST-RATE PILOT
In 1932, Doolittle expected to participate in the transcontinental
race for the "Bendix trophy" and in the "Thompson Trophy"(he
failed to participate in 1931 because of a broken piston). Four days before
the start of the first race, Doolittle belly-landed and heavely damaged
his racer because of a blocked landing gear.
Zantford
Granville, maker of the big Gee Bee learned about his troubles. Because
his pilot was wounded after an emergency landing, he proposed Doolittle
to replace him immediately. The latter jumped at the occasion but he felt
confounded seing the machine; the enormous body, short and rounded, the
tiny rudder supposed an instability that would be fatal for quite a few
pilots, but also suggested power and speed in a raw state. Captivated,
Doolittle examined the plane thoroughly, got in and started the engine.
He cried to Granville, who asked him where he was going"to Cleveland
of course !".
About this machine Doolittle said :
-"This is the most delicate plane I have ever flown... The R model
must be flown with silk gloves and likened to balancing a pencil at your
fingers top."
In Cleveland to exercize the rounding of the pillars he climbed till 1500
meters instead of the usal 80 meters prctized during the races in closed-circuit,
an reported afterwards :
-" I was lucky I had this idea. The machine made two barrel rolls
before I regained control. If I had trained closer to the ground, I would
be dead now".
Rapidly familiar with the "monster", he was able to beat world
speed record during the test flights with an average of 477 km/h. For
the race he prepared the folowing strategy : using the power of his engine
and the leverage of his propeller, he would lead the race from the start
and round the pillars at ample distance such as to maintain speed and
avoid sharply inclined curves. He faced the best pilots on the best aircrafts
: Jimmy Weddel, Roscoe Turner and Jimmy Haizlip.
Doolittle succedeed his canon shot start and left behind all competitors
except Weddel. He won with such an advance that the ordinary people considered
it an easy victory. But for his peers, the performance of this courageous
and exceptionaly gifted pilot was a heroic aviation feat, a recognition
subsequently confirmed when the Gee Bees started to cause the death of
their pilots. Doolittle prudently abandonned the races a few weeks later,
convinced by his experience with this machine, called "the death
trap", that this type of competition costed too much in human lifes
and material.
In
1932, the two Gee Bees R1 and R2 found a tragical end. One of them, during
take-off in Indianapolis, deviated while rolling on the left of strip
and crashed head first on the landing strip. Russel Boardman, the pilot
died some days later. The same day the second machine broke its landing
gear. Once repaired, it returned to springfield where it crashed while
landing. Jimmy Haizlip, the pilot was severely wounded and this accident
marked him for life. Zantford Granville, the creator of the Gee Bee, got
killed at the control of one of his machines when he tried to avoid two
workmen on the landing strip.
A last Gee Bee was built with pieces retrieved from the wrecks of the two super sporters R1 and R2. This hybrid crashed at the take-off during the 1934 Bendix Trophy, causing once again the pilot's death. It was the last time that the machine participated in a race.
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Watch the only replica of the Gee Bee R2 whose pilot is Benjamin Delmar. Outstanding pictures, many historic details and technical information about this amazing little plane. You can even watch some quick time movies ! Click here
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can seat inside the Gee Bee and explore him if you click
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It's a quick time VR movie that shows you the cockpit trough a 360°
view !
The
Gee Bee R1 of Jimmy Doolittle, winner
of the 1932 Thompson Trophy.
Jimmy
Doolittle
Lowell
Bayles
Jimmy
Haizlip
The
R1 Gee Bee