Many years ago I was given a model of a Gee Bee Model Z racing aircraft, and the design has always intrigued me. Therefore when I began the Interbellum blog some time ago I decided to base the design of an imaginary fighter aircraft belonging to the Soviet Peoples' United Republic (SPUR) – a somewhat obvious parody of the USSR – on the Gee Bee Racer. I named the aircraft the Rippov-1 (or R-1) and published a picture of the aircraft.
An artist's impression of the new R-1 fighter.
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when by chance I saw the following picture of the Nikitin NV-1 ... a real Soviet aircraft that appears to have been based on the Gee Bee Racer!
I thought that I was being imaginative ... but obviously not that imaginative!
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when by chance I saw the following picture of the Nikitin NV-1 ... a real Soviet aircraft that appears to have been based on the Gee Bee Racer!
I thought that I was being imaginative ... but obviously not that imaginative!
Great minds thinking alike?!
ReplyDeleteThere's two ways to look at this; great minds think alike, or you're 70 years behind the times. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMartin and Jim Hale,
ReplyDeleteI would like to think that it was great minds thinking alike ... but the truth is probably closer to being that I am just behind the times!
All the best,
Bob
With the exception of the fixed landing gear, this design is also very similar to the Polikarpov I-16.
ReplyDeleteGabriel Guerin,
ReplyDeleteIts similarity to the I-16 (another of my favourite aircraft of the 1930s) had not escaped me as well.
All the best,
Bob
I have always though the BeeGee airplane would make a great little fighter, then on some forum or other I saw that someone had nicked my idea and gone ahead and modelled one!
ReplyDeleteSo frustrating.
Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/
Tony,
ReplyDeleteObviously several of us have had a similar idea about the Gee Bee Racer. Mind you, from what I hear a Gee Bee Fighter would have been very difficult to fly, even though it would have been very fast.
All the best,
Bob