Page 25 - Volume 12 Number 4

minor adjustments were made to the airframe and engine, and at last Livingston was ready to unleash his new mount on the unsuspecting competition, including the CR-2.
In mid-June Johnny entered his brightly-painted Cessna (yellow overall with red trim) in the Omaha races, beating long-time competitors (and close friends) Benny Howard and Harold Neumann before traveling north to compete in air races held in July near Chicago. It would prove to be a tough competition because the CR-2 would be there, too, this time own by veteran pilot Arthur J. Davis. Johnny managed to eke out a win in the Baby Ruth Trophy race at a speed of 201 mph, while Davis was right on his tail in second place with a speed of 200 mph. Both Cessna and Livingston knew that the two airplanes were essentially equal and would consistently butt heads in wingtip-to-wingtip ghts for the money.
That is what happened on July 4 in the Aero Digest Trophy Race when the two racers appeared to be one airplane as they rounded the course lap after lap. Johnny, however, was able to gain a split-second lead over Davis in the last few pylon turns, thanks to that shoulder-mounted Dwane Wallace had recommended. Only three seconds and a few miles per hour separated rst place from second, with Livingston winning $2,250 and Art pocketing $1,250.
To top off that achievement, on July 5, Livingston ew the racer at 237 mph over a 1.9-mile closed course to set a world record for airplanes with engines of less than 500 cubic inch displacement. Unfortunately, the meteoric rise of the CR-3 came to an end on August 1 when Johnny ew the ship to Columbus, Ohio. Although he was able to crank down the landing gear, he could not manually insert one of two pins that locked the gear in the extended position.
After many attempts to force the lock into place, Livingston reluctantly decided to bail out
over the airport instead of risking injury or death making a forced landing. When Johnny stood up in the open cockpit, his body so disturbed air ow that the racer snapped into a spin, pinning the pilot against the fuselage. Johnny struggled back into the cockpit, recovered from the spin and climbed higher for another attempt to exit the airplane. This time he rolled the monoplane into knife-edge ight, rewalled the throttle and pushed top rudder while ramming the stick forward. He popped out of the cockpit and fell clear of the stricken racer before pulling the ripcord. As he slowly drifted downward, Livingston watched his undefeated racer dive straight into the ground at a tremendous speed, the Super Scarab screaming at the top of its lungs. Minutes later, surrounded a growing crowd of onlookers, Johnny walked over to the smoking hulk that had buried itself in the ground. In less than 60 days since its rst
ight, the CR-3 had won a special place in history as one of greatest designs of air racing’s “Golden Age.”
The CR-2, however, was still alive and well as Clyde and Eldon worked more magic in an effort to gain more speed from the racer. After 30 days of hard work, “Miss Wanda” emerged from the workshop sporting a new paint job, a completely revised cockpit enclosure that included a canopy and small, metal panels (identical to those installed on the CR-3) that covered the wheels when the gear was retracted. A redesigned cowling featuring blisters to clear the engine’s rocker boxes were another attempt to reduce drag. The changes warranted a change in the designation to CR-2A. Late in August Roy Liggett completed a series of test ights before ying north to compete in the upcoming 1933 air races held at the Curtiss- Reynolds Airport near Chicago. “Miss Wanda” showed her tail to
APRIL 2018
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 23