Gee Bee history

Model Airplane News, Aug 1998

The first sport planes built by the Granville brothers were single-seat beauties called Sportsters. When business was bad in the Depression, the Granvilles thought that a two-place version of a Sportster would be a more sellable product. They basically enlarged their Sportster design by 20 percent to make a twoplace aircraft. Thus was born the Senior Sportster Model-Y. The first single-seat Sportster was known as the Model-X.

These aircraft were not originally built or designed for racing. They were highperformance sport aircraft built for wealthy sportsman pilots. Air racing, however, was so popular then that most pilots who owned an airplane would race at the numerous airshow events. Races were run on the basis of engine displacement, and the Gee Bee Sportster became known as the race plane because nothing in its engine class could keep up with it.

The Model-Y became an even better racer than its smaller predecessor. Model-Ys were such successful racers that the Granville Co. decided to build an all-out serious race plane to try to win some of the big money prizes at the National Air Races. This racer became the Model-Z Super Sportster. In 1932, two more race planes, the R-l and R-2 Super Sportsters, were built.

The Model-Y, though not intended as a race plane, won more races and more money than any of the all-out racers that followed it. When the Model-Y was flown in races, its front cockpit was covered over, and the front windshield was removed. A little-known fact is that during the 1932 Omaha Air Races, Russell Boardman won the top racing prize and later took the Model-Y up again and won the National Aerobatic Championship. All of the Gee Bee Sportsters were excellent aerobatic mounts and were a big hit at airshows.