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Stipa-Caproni plane - photos
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Looks like something inspired by a Roger Rabbit cartoon or a GB model R...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ee_Bee_R-1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee_Bee_Model_R
that flew headfirst into the end of a pipe.
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that thing just looks wrong but I bet it is a blast to fly with the short fuselage the vertical and horizontal stabilizers are so close to the wings it looks to be acrobatically unstable
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Frank S
that thing just looks wrong but I bet it is a blast to fly with the short fuselage the vertical and horizontal stabilizers are so close to the wings it looks to be acrobatically unstable
Apparently it was very stable, though it doesn't look it. The idea was to have a fully ducted airflow through an aero foil shaped tube, with the tail fins in the airflow. This made the control surfaces very effective. The problem was the drag which didn't allow it to fly fast. However the designer intended the enclosed engine to be used on multiengine planes which would probably have worked quite well. However the Italian airforce didn't pursue the design.
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1 Attachment(s)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mklotz
Great minds think alike. I was intending to write, "Geekers, I wonder where they got the design idea."
Attachment 29953
Now, I won't need to.
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The Gee Bee Racer was unstable and killed several pilots. There was one pilot it didn't kill, who went on to perform one of the greatest achievements of WWII, namely, General Jimmy Doolittle, who commanded the squadron of sixteen, unescorted, B25 bombers, taking off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet to bomb Tokyo, only 4 months after the Pearl Harbor Attack. General Doolittle held many aviation records, but also earned the nation's first PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from M.I.T. He thought he would be Court-Martialed for losing his aircraft after conducting the Doolittle Raid, but was instead awarded our nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor. He has been listed as one of the 10 greatest men in aviation.
By the way, that Italian Stipa-Caproni looks like a flying Leaf Blower.
