GeeBee R6H / Q.E.D. / Conquistador del Cielo

First the Credits:  First special thanks to Kevin Breen for his pictures, documents, and encouragement.  The drawings and specifications for the Gee Bee were found in "A legacy of speed The Gee Bee Racers" by Charles Mendenhall and the "Aircraft in Profile" series published by Doubleday and Company.  The gauges are XML (isn't it odd to see Micr$oft make something simpler?) and FS Panel studio was used for the panels.  Thanks to: all who have worked to decode the flight dynamics and have shared their work with the rest of us especially Jerry Beckwith and his Flight Model Workbook; David Eckert for his excellent FSDS tutorials and pilot figure; Dai Griffiths and Arne Bartels for their help in getting over the gauge learning curve hump; Shlomo Hakim and Joseph Schuster for the sound.  The cast aluminum rudder pedals are by Jerry Turner and can be had at www.nostalgicreflections.com.  All other work is my own, such as it is. 
Installation:  Unzip in the aircraft subdirectory.  For FS2002 move the file qed.cab from the panel folder to the gauges folder.  For FS2004 it can be left in the panel folder. 

Flying:  I recommend rudder pedals, its a big plane with lots of prop torque and yaw.  Takeoffs seem to be easiest at 75% power.  As with all the Granville Bros. planes this one is slippery and takes some doing to slow down, the split flaps help alot.  The little "T" at the bottom of the 2D panel toggles the throttle quadrant.

History:  This was the last Granville design.  It was built for Jackie Cochran.  Lee Gehlbach flew it in the '34 Bendix but was sidelined by cowling problems.  Jackie Cochran flew it in the Mac Robertson London to Melbourne race but damaged the stabilizer landing at Bucharest and was out of the race.  Lee Miles flew the Q.E.D. in the '36 Thompson Trophy race but after 11 laps the engine gave up.
  Charles Babb bought the plane for the '38 Bendix to be flown by Feorge Armistead.  He made it from Burbank, CA to Kingman, Arizona at which point the oil pressure dropped, the oil temperature climbed, the carb iced up, and the radio failed.  He landed in Winslow, Arizona and walked away from the plane in disgust.
  Francisco Sarabia bought the plane in '38 and repainted it.  He set a speed and nonstop distance record on May 24th, 1939 by flying from Mexico City to New York City, 2350 miles, in 10 hours 49 minutes landing at Floyd Bennett Field on fumes.  He flew from New York City to Washington DC.  Departing Washington he climbed to 100 feet as which point the engine stopped, the plane stalled, and crashed into the Potomac River where Sarabia drowned.  It was later found that a rag left in the cowling had been sucked into the carburetor shutting off the fuel supply.  The plane was salvaged and returned to Mexico where, in the mid '60s, Alberto Sarabia restored the plane and it is now displayed in a domed building in Ciudad Lerdo.

Warning:  Copyright 2003 Tom Eads.  This plane may not be sold,
  or included in any package, compilation, collection, or any other
  form of distribution without the authors written consent.

Tom Eads
[email protected]