Okay, the last Mystery Plane was identified after a mere 32 minutes. Let’s see if this one does better.
What is this aircraft? And why is it not what you might think?
Mystery Plane (3)
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Looks rather like a GeeBee but I think the cockpit might be too big…
It IS a Gee Bee Sportster, but not a GENUINE one because it's only 20-30 years old and not an exact copy (safer to fly!).
This was "easy" because I know almost none (only two) of the originals didn't crash and one of them is a biplane.
Hey! This mystery lasted two hours!
This is in fact a Gee Bee Model Z, but a replica, using a less powerful engine than the original, and with more efficient control surfaces.
Which explains why this one didn't crash, and the only original Model Z did.
This is also the plane used in the Rocketeer film.
In fact all 24 planes built by the Granville Brothers crashed except two, and we're not sure about one of those. (It was flying in Spain in the Forties, nothing heard about it since then.)
One that crashed, killing its pilot, was rebuilt out of the wrecked parts and is now in a Mexican museum.
Two Gee Bees that crashed, killing their pilots, were rebuilt into a single Gee Bee, which crashed and killed its pilot.
One of the four Granville Brothers died in one of his own planes.
The only one that survived to the present day was a Model A biplane, and it's in a museum in New England.
If you were in air combat, the Gee Bee was the plane you wanted the =other= guy to fly.
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