Dayton-Wright RB-1

Air Classics, Nov 2003 by O'Leary, Michael

ALTHOUGH EXTREMELY ADVANCED FOR ITS DAY, THIS RACER FAILED IN ITS PRIMARY MISSION

Air racing took its first steps in August 1909 when a variety of early flying machines gathered near Reims, France, for what would be the first competition of aircraft flying around a course that was marked with pylons. Taking place on the Plains of Betheny some 80-mi northeast of Paris, the main prize was the James Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup. Named after the newspaper publisher who created the trophy, the gathering was also a coup for increased circulation while also giving a strong stimulus to the new science of aeronautics.

In 1908, Wilbur Wright took the Wright Flyer to France and made a number of flights near LeMans which astounded the French public. Aviation in France had been limited to a few short hops and to see the Wright Flyer soar easily through the air was a tremendous boost to French aeronauts who were trying to create more efficient machines. Aviation surged ahead in France and in 1909 Louis Bleriot and his small monoplane crossed the English Channel - the first international flight.

The event at Reims was a weeklong extravaganza that drew tens of thousands of spectators. The Gordon Bennett Race was a pretty simple affair - there were no rules! Any form of flying machine was welcomed for competition. The first winner was Glenn Curtiss flying a specifically-built machine - the Curtiss Reims Racer which took the Cup at an average speed of 47.07-mph. Second place was awarded to Louis Bleriot in his Model XI and he might have won except for being caught in a cloud burst that slowed his second lap. Along with the Cup, Curtiss also received a substantial cash prize and the right to hold the second race in the United States.

The trend to create specially-built racing machines helped advance aeronautics and, by 1912, the streamlined Deperdussin monoplane racer powered by a twin-row 140-hp Gnome rotary flew one lap at an amazing 108-mph. In the final Gordon Bennett Trophy Race before the start of World War One, Maurice Provost piloted a Deperdussin to win at 125-mph and become the first pilot to fly faster than two miles a minute. Designer Armand Deperdussin was not in a celebratory mood since he had been arrested for utilizing embezzled money for building his aircraft -it seems that another popular aviation trend had also been created!

Due to the devastating effects of the Great War, the James Gordon Bennett Cup Race did not restart until 1920 and, when it did, the aircraft were greatly advanced - taking full benefit of the lessons learned during the war. Held in France, the United States would send four racing aircraft for the competition. Curtiss created the Cactus Kitten and the Texas Wildcat, both financed by Texas oilman S.E.J. Cox. The United States Air Service sent the powerful Verville Scout VCP-1 biplane fitted with a new V-12 Packard rated at 638-hp at 2000-rpm. The fourth aircraft was entered by Dayton-Wright Airplane Company (Orville Wright wrote Glenn L. Martin in May 1917 that "The [Dayton-Wright] company was organized by Messers. Deeds and Kettering and H.E. Talbott, Senior and Junior...[who] are going to carry out some of my ideas in creating a sport in aeronautics." The Dayton-Wright concern had been awarded large, and controversial, contracts for American production of the de Havilland 4 during WWI) and this is the aircraft we profile in this issue.

The Dayton-Wright RB-1 was a quantum leap above the other aircraft that showed up for the competition at Estampes, France. The new machine had Orville Wright as a consulting engineer (although it is not known exactly how much he contributed to the project) and Milton C. Baumann was head-designer (Howard Max Rinehart was also listed as a designer - hence the RB designation) while Ivan H. Driggs was the mechanical engineer (Driggs had started his aviation career in 1914 as a draftsman with the Burgess Company and would later go on to help start Consolidated Aircraft and Luscombe Aircraft. He also started the Driggs Aircraft Company and built a limited production series of light aircraft).

The RB-1 was an amazing machine. It had a monocoque wooden fuselage built by binding thin strips of wood tightly with strips of fabric laid in glue, the strips criss-crossing the under-layer each time a layer of wood was applied - resulting in an extremely strong structure. The pilot was completely enclosed in the fuselage behind the trailing edge of the wing - visibility limited to just two large windows, one on each side of the fuselage, which the pilot could push slightly open at lower speeds to afford a modicum of forward visibility. Power was supplied by a specially-modified Hall-Scott racing engine that was connected to a large fixed two-blade wooden propeller (this engine was criticized by other racers since it was a WWI throw-back and newer and much more powerful engines were available). However, the most amazing part of the fuselage was that it was fitted with retractable landing gear. The RB-1 may not have been the first aircraft to feature retractable gear but it certainly was one of the very " first and also the first racing plane to employ this streamlining feature. Using a system of chains and gears, the pilot would hand crank the gear (using a crank on the instrument panel) to raise and lower the wheels which fitted flush to the sides of the fuselage when fully retracted (a process that took between twelve and 20 seconds. In fact, the system looked a good deal like the retractable gear employed by Grumman some years later.