Golden Age Air Racers

Roscoe Turner's Bendix trophy and racer at the Smithsonian

My aviation interest does cover a broad range of aircraft.  Mainly types between 1920s and 1950s.  For a few years I studied almost exclusively 1930s Golden Age air racers.  Delmar Benjamin burst on the airshow scene back in the 1990s with his Gee Bee R-2 replica and that really brought out the interest in the racers amongst the aviation minded public.  Few original racers exist so most of the Golden Age aircraft seen today are replicas.  Gee Bee's of various models, Travel Air Mystery Ship, Roscoe Turner's racers, de Haviland Comet racer and more are so unique that to see them in any form today is worth the effort from the owners to showcase an awesome time in aviation history.

Comet

Where would you see them today?  Well, some are shown in museums, others in private owners hangars and a few that are currently being built will hopefully make it to local and national airshows.

Pete Groves and I have corresponded over the last couple years from our mutual interest in the Ryan STA.  Pete also has an interest in Golden Age air racers.  So much so that he is building up a Laird Super Solution.  Take a few minutes to check out the build progress on his Super Solution at his blog...

http://supersolutionproject.blogspot.com

To catch up on the latest progress of other air racer projects you MUST see the photos included in one of Pete's most recent blog posts!

http://supersolutionproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/golden-age-projects.html

The photos that have me captivated are the ones of Jim Moss's Gee Bee "Super" QED.  WOW!

I can't wait to see more photos of when these awesome ships take to the air!

Eicher/Kimball Gee Bee Z

Still my favorite Gee Bee replica is the model Z built by Jeff Eicher and Kevin Kimball.  It now lives at Kermit Weeks Fantasy of Flight.  The yellow and black racer is just powerfully cool!

What are your favorite Golden Age Air Racers?