Gee Bee Racer in 'The Rocketeer

Tks John I stand corrected.

The placard on the plane at the museum said “used in the rocketeer movie” and I remember somewhere along when he acquired the R2 Mr Delmar bird that someone had mentioned it was the original movie bird.

Seeing the R2 being flown at 90 degree and hold altitude….is a sight to behold!!!…Well as much side fuselage surface as wing surface….why not!!!

It’s such a shame “The Rocketeer” didn’t catch on the way Indiana Jones did. I’d love to have seen a sequel. So much potential. Just imagine, the “Rocketeer” versus a staffel of Me109s!

I have both volumes of the ‘Aircraft of Racing Golden Age’ real god books with scale drawings.

Dave

Yes, that’s the Travel Air book I mentioned. I also have a book on Howards which has a section on Mr. Mulligan, a racing aeroplane in the form of a large cabin tourer.

Now what I’d like is a book with details on the Gee Bees, Laird and the like.
It was a fascinating period where a few individuals could privately build an aircraft faster than military fighters of the day. They weren’t inexpensive back then as the engines cost a fortune in period money, but they demonstrated real design work and innovation.

J Boyle, have you got Ed Phillip’s book on the Travel Air, as there is some gen on the Travel Air Mystery ship in it.

You’re right there John. Like how so many armchair experts talk about the Short Stirling, Fairey Fulmar, Fairey Albacore and other types with great disdain and yet when you speak with the people who actually flew them operationally you get a whole different perspective because they loved them.

Aside from such notoriety…there have been several books with that title, the only one worth looking at is the one by the late James Gilbert.

Like the books on “the world’s worst cars”….most are written by hacks with no real experience in the types and just promote half-truths, rumor and hangar talk.

I have a book on the Travel Air but would like a book on all the great American racing planes from the “golden age”…anyone have a recommendation?
Or for you authors out there…a suggestion for a book.

My earliest memory of the GeeBee is reading about it in a book called ‘The World’s Worst Aircraft!’

The Gee Bee Z replica owned by Kermit Weeks/Fantasy of Flight is not the one used in the Rocketeer movie. The one that Kermit Weeks/Fantasy of Flight owns was built by Kevin Kimball and Jeff Eicher in the 90’s and was test flown by Delmar Benjamin for the first time in 1996 (he would go on to complete 12 flights in all, which Delmar claims to be the most fun he has ever had flying an airplane, and that the Gee Bee Z is his favorite aircraft of all time) – I believe Kermit Weeks flew it 2 or 3 times shortly after he got it. It is a far more accurate/true to the original reproduction than the replica built by Bill Turner and used in the Rocketeer movie – that one is on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

BTW, if you’re as much a Gee Bee fan as I am, you’ll really enjoy this Youtube channel, with tons of fantastic, rare videos from the 90’s featuring some really candid insights and great footage of both the Steve Wolf/Delmar Benjamin Gee Bee R-2 and the Kevin Kimball/Jeff Eicher Gee Bee Z (both of which are now owned by Kermit Weeks and not flown):

https://www.youtube.com/user/airrideGTI/videos

Now with Fantasy of Flight in Florida.

He has quite a nice collection of those replica birds now

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/aircraft/currently-not-showing-in-museum/golden-age/

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/aircraft/currently-not-showing-in-museum/golden-age/1931-gee-bee-z/

https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/wp-content/uploads/sstbGeeBeeZGallery160879.jpg

Sorry, I should’ve been clearer: I meant the Racer in The Rocketeer which appeared in a hangar shot as detailed and screenshotted here: http://impdb.org/index.php?title=The_Rocketeer#Hughes_H-1_Racer_.26_Hughes_HK-1_Spruce_Goose_.28prototype.29

I remembered Jim Wright’s project well but, as I’ve been researching some model builds, only recently have I looked into it further and in detail. A stunning machine and, by all accounts, a lovely man. Wayne Sagar’s AAFO website has some amazing construction photos.

12 years, wow, and I still like this stuff…..
(So does Dan)

The Hughes racer was built by Jim Wright of Oregon. Steve Wolf of Samson/ gee bee fame built the wing, Ron Covell, master metal worker built the tail and formed fuselage skins, Jim Younkin (another racer replica guy) built the cowl, and Jim Wrights team assembled it all.
Sadly Jim was killed in the replica returning from its first and only Oshkosh with a prop failure in Yellowstone park a number of years ago.
Jim and the racer are no more.

I’ve not seen this since I was a child and must re-watch, but I have a question (hopefully) worthy of a resurrection after 12yr:

Who built the Hughes H-1 Racer replica, and where is it now? I was wondering if it’s the example at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight but I’ve since read that’s from The Aviator.
https://flic.kr/p/UZv8ie

Rocketeer

I have been following this thread… one of my favorite movies…

Dave… I was told they used a Waco UPF-7 to put the actor in and fly around so that it was visually looking like he was flying. Looks like they even painted it yellow to match the Gee Bee Z! I too liked the Hughes charater…. well played. The romance of aviation comes out in the movie.

The Gee Bee in Classic Wings is a replica. I posted my notes on it on WIX…

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4639

My pictures of that replica are here…

http://www.dtlinn.com/images/GeeBee/index.html

I am a big fan of the Gee Bee’s and the movie! 😀

Blue Skies,
Dan

I hang my head in shame as I have never seen The Rocketeer. Might just give it a look, though.

Thanks everyone – interesting stuff indeed. It was a great film with excellent flying and great music. as well as the nice looking Gee Bee replica, the replicas of Clark Gable and WC Fields were also pretty good!

A bit more trivia… As well as tie in with the Hindenburg, there is also the St Valentines Day massacre!

And did you realise that the actor who played Howard Hughes (and very well I thought) also plays John Locke in ‘Lost’ – a bit of trivia. I hardly recognised him, my sister picked that one up.

I’m sure I read in the latest Classic Wings of a genuine Gee Bee racer being restored after languishing hidden away for many years. Must check that tonight.

Craig Hosking (sic) is listed as a pilot on IMDb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102803/fullcredits

One more thought, to my trained eye the aerial scenes where Bill Campbell was in the Gee Bee cockpit it looked like he was really flying in something, and not just a studio set. Was he in the back of a biplane? The special effects were actually pretty fantastic for its day, 1991.

I believe Hinton was hurt pretty bad in the crash of the Miles and Atwood Special during the filming of “The Rocketeer”. Possibly that is when Mr. Hoskins took over flying duties in the “Z”?

that may be the situation, as I well remember Craig telling me some years ago that he flew the aircraft for the film, ( and I think he is mentioned in the credits) but the timing may be a result of what you mention.
And he was VERY clear that the aircraft was completely unacceptable as it was.
But as Delmar B proved the Z properly built, ( the Kimball / Eicher) version was a perfectly flyable aircraft in the right hands.
By the way, kermit weeks now has a fantastic collection of Racer Replica´s with the:
Gee Bee R2 ( Ex benjamin,Wolf)
Gee Bee Model Z ( Ex Kimball,Eicher)
Super Solution ( Jim Moss)
Lockheed Vega ( D jameson)
any others?
he should buy the Wedell Williams that was just down the street?
has anyone seen or heard that kermit has flown any of his replica´s himself? the R2 and the Super Solution in particular.

Donald or Ivanah?

Didn’t know either of them were pilots

Moggy

He probably commissioned 2 companies to build the replicas.

One of them was accepted and the other was fired….. 😀

TNZ

I believe Hinton was hurt pretty bad in the crash of the Miles and Atwood Special during the filming of “The Rocketeer”. Possibly that is when Mr. Hoskins took over flying duties in the “Z”?

Trump!

Donald or Ivanah?

Didn’t know either of them were pilots

Moggy