Mick
August 29th, 2009, 10:02
David and I have just uploaded another addition to our collection of Gee Bee airplanes to FlightSim and the Outhouse. (Well, we think it went up to FlightSim; we won't be sure until tomorrow due to some browser/FTP wierdness...)
This one was never completed and flown, but it got far enough along in construction that we were able to produce what we consider a pretty authentic model. The paints, of course, are speculative, though we thing they're pretty reasonable. Well, most of them anyway...
The Granville Brothers Gee Bee C8 "Eightster" was one of a projected "C" series of Gee Bee commercial airplanes (not to be confused with the Model C Sportster) that the Granvilles hoped would carry their company out of its sports and racing niche market and into the growing field of commercial aircraft manufacturer.
There were to be three similar planes of varying sizes, with different powerplants. The largest, the C8 "Eightster," would be an eight-seat airliner to compete with planes like the Vultee V-1A, Northrop Delta and Lockheed Vega and Orion. The intermediate sized C6 "Sixter" was to be a six-seater aimed at the corporate market, while the four-seat C4 "Fourster" was to be marketed towards private owners in competition with planes like the Stinson Reliant.
The C series was to depart from previous Granville practice in having a fully cantilever wing. The skin was to be balloon fabric over mahogany plywood, topped with fourteen coats of hand-sanded dope, like the Model R unlimited racers.
Construction of the prototype C8 "Eightster" was started in 1933 and construction got fairly well along. The wing was built and covered with plywood, though not with fabric; the fuselage was set up and tack welded, and the tail section was nearly complete. Then a confluence of events forced the cancellation of the project.
The Eightster's prospects suffered a major blow when the federal government announced that it would no longer certify single engined airliners. The C8 might have found another market, but the Granville firm's financial difficulties precluded any possibility of that. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and had just arranged for an infusion of new capital in the fall of 1932. Then in March of 1933 a run on the banks led the Roosevelt administration to declare a "bank holiday," closing the banks until the situation could stabilize. The Granville's new financing became unavailable and the business had to be liquidated.
The paints provided are plausible representations of liveries that might have been worn by Eightsters if the type had gone into production. It was possible to create a fairly rich alternative history for the Eightster.
The prototype almost certainly would have been painted as we depict it. The promotional materials show it that way, and the livery of Coca-Cola red and white in a scalloped pattern had become the Granville Bros. Aircraft house livery, adorning a least two Sportsters, both Senior Sportsters and both Model R Super Sportsters. All the other Sportsters and the Model Z Super Sportsters wore the same pattern, but in different colors. Our Eightster, as the real one would have, displays the new Gee Bee geese logo, reminiscent of the device painted on one of the Model E Sportsters. The registration is shown with the NX prefix to indicate that the plane has not completed its certification tests.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/01.jpg
The primary stockholders in Granville Bros. Aircraft Inc. were the Tait brothers. They also owned the Granville factory building and Springfield Airport, and they had a large hangar across the field from the Granville shop. They owned airplanes and had at least one company plane that they used in their dairy business. It seems plausible that they might have replaced that plane by purchasing the prototype Eightster, so we've repainted the prototype with the Tait's Venetian Ice Cream logo. The registration now carries the NC prefix to show that the type certificate has been issued and the plane licensed for commercial use. Below the cockpit appears the name of the pilot, the famous race pilot Maude Tait, daughter of one of the Taits.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/02.jpg
Another piece of the Tait aviation empire was the New England & Western Air Transportation Company, Inc. In reality, NE&WAT lasted less than a year in business before becoming one more victim of the stock market crash and the burgeoning Depression, and it had been out of business several years before the Eightster would have flown.
Since we're playing "what if" by flying the Eightster, we might as well play another round and pretend that NE&WAT had survived and prospered. No doubt the Taits, owners of New England & Western and major stockholders in Granville Brothers, would have been pleased to replace the airline's aging fleet of Ford Trimotors with sleek new Eightsters. Of course, we'll also have to pretend that the federal government didn't stop certifying single engine airliners, and that legislation hadn't ended the practice of airlines and airliner builders being corporate relatives.
Our Eightster wears two New England & Western liveries. One is based on the colors and markings of the line's Ford Trimotors, with a few adjustments to fit the Eightster's low wing configuration.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/03.jpg
The other assumes that the Taits would have adopted the Gee Bee house colors as the airline's new livery, something we think would have been very probable.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/04.jpg
Just a mile or two as the Eightster flies from Springfield Airport was (and still is) the home of another famous Springfield company, Smith & Wesson. It seems reasonable that a firm like S&W, with its national customer base, would have found a company plane very useful, and that they would've bought it from their famous local neighbor. Whether they would've painted it to resemble a black & white police car is more speculative...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/05.jpg
Another famous corporate resident of Springfield's east side was the Indian Motorcycle Company. Like Smith & Wesson, Indian marketed nationally and might've found a company plane useful, and they might have bought a Gee Bee. The livery combines the standard Gee Bee pattern with Indian's company colors and logo.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/06.jpg
During the thirties the Texas Company operated a fleet of airplanes to promote their Texaco brand, and they offered a line of models of planes in Texaco livery that featured even more variety than the real airplanes. We think the Eightster seems like a natural choice for a Texaco plane, and the fact that Texaco products were sold at Springfield Airport wouldn't have hurt the chances of the C8 being added to the Texaco line.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/07.jpg
Continued below...
This one was never completed and flown, but it got far enough along in construction that we were able to produce what we consider a pretty authentic model. The paints, of course, are speculative, though we thing they're pretty reasonable. Well, most of them anyway...
The Granville Brothers Gee Bee C8 "Eightster" was one of a projected "C" series of Gee Bee commercial airplanes (not to be confused with the Model C Sportster) that the Granvilles hoped would carry their company out of its sports and racing niche market and into the growing field of commercial aircraft manufacturer.
There were to be three similar planes of varying sizes, with different powerplants. The largest, the C8 "Eightster," would be an eight-seat airliner to compete with planes like the Vultee V-1A, Northrop Delta and Lockheed Vega and Orion. The intermediate sized C6 "Sixter" was to be a six-seater aimed at the corporate market, while the four-seat C4 "Fourster" was to be marketed towards private owners in competition with planes like the Stinson Reliant.
The C series was to depart from previous Granville practice in having a fully cantilever wing. The skin was to be balloon fabric over mahogany plywood, topped with fourteen coats of hand-sanded dope, like the Model R unlimited racers.
Construction of the prototype C8 "Eightster" was started in 1933 and construction got fairly well along. The wing was built and covered with plywood, though not with fabric; the fuselage was set up and tack welded, and the tail section was nearly complete. Then a confluence of events forced the cancellation of the project.
The Eightster's prospects suffered a major blow when the federal government announced that it would no longer certify single engined airliners. The C8 might have found another market, but the Granville firm's financial difficulties precluded any possibility of that. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and had just arranged for an infusion of new capital in the fall of 1932. Then in March of 1933 a run on the banks led the Roosevelt administration to declare a "bank holiday," closing the banks until the situation could stabilize. The Granville's new financing became unavailable and the business had to be liquidated.
The paints provided are plausible representations of liveries that might have been worn by Eightsters if the type had gone into production. It was possible to create a fairly rich alternative history for the Eightster.
The prototype almost certainly would have been painted as we depict it. The promotional materials show it that way, and the livery of Coca-Cola red and white in a scalloped pattern had become the Granville Bros. Aircraft house livery, adorning a least two Sportsters, both Senior Sportsters and both Model R Super Sportsters. All the other Sportsters and the Model Z Super Sportsters wore the same pattern, but in different colors. Our Eightster, as the real one would have, displays the new Gee Bee geese logo, reminiscent of the device painted on one of the Model E Sportsters. The registration is shown with the NX prefix to indicate that the plane has not completed its certification tests.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/01.jpg
The primary stockholders in Granville Bros. Aircraft Inc. were the Tait brothers. They also owned the Granville factory building and Springfield Airport, and they had a large hangar across the field from the Granville shop. They owned airplanes and had at least one company plane that they used in their dairy business. It seems plausible that they might have replaced that plane by purchasing the prototype Eightster, so we've repainted the prototype with the Tait's Venetian Ice Cream logo. The registration now carries the NC prefix to show that the type certificate has been issued and the plane licensed for commercial use. Below the cockpit appears the name of the pilot, the famous race pilot Maude Tait, daughter of one of the Taits.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/02.jpg
Another piece of the Tait aviation empire was the New England & Western Air Transportation Company, Inc. In reality, NE&WAT lasted less than a year in business before becoming one more victim of the stock market crash and the burgeoning Depression, and it had been out of business several years before the Eightster would have flown.
Since we're playing "what if" by flying the Eightster, we might as well play another round and pretend that NE&WAT had survived and prospered. No doubt the Taits, owners of New England & Western and major stockholders in Granville Brothers, would have been pleased to replace the airline's aging fleet of Ford Trimotors with sleek new Eightsters. Of course, we'll also have to pretend that the federal government didn't stop certifying single engine airliners, and that legislation hadn't ended the practice of airlines and airliner builders being corporate relatives.
Our Eightster wears two New England & Western liveries. One is based on the colors and markings of the line's Ford Trimotors, with a few adjustments to fit the Eightster's low wing configuration.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/03.jpg
The other assumes that the Taits would have adopted the Gee Bee house colors as the airline's new livery, something we think would have been very probable.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/04.jpg
Just a mile or two as the Eightster flies from Springfield Airport was (and still is) the home of another famous Springfield company, Smith & Wesson. It seems reasonable that a firm like S&W, with its national customer base, would have found a company plane very useful, and that they would've bought it from their famous local neighbor. Whether they would've painted it to resemble a black & white police car is more speculative...
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/05.jpg
Another famous corporate resident of Springfield's east side was the Indian Motorcycle Company. Like Smith & Wesson, Indian marketed nationally and might've found a company plane useful, and they might have bought a Gee Bee. The livery combines the standard Gee Bee pattern with Indian's company colors and logo.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/06.jpg
During the thirties the Texas Company operated a fleet of airplanes to promote their Texaco brand, and they offered a line of models of planes in Texaco livery that featured even more variety than the real airplanes. We think the Eightster seems like a natural choice for a Texaco plane, and the fact that Texaco products were sold at Springfield Airport wouldn't have hurt the chances of the C8 being added to the Texaco line.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/mm99/Eightster/07.jpg
Continued below...