Page 26 - Volume 12, Number 3

piloted by Captain R.G. Breene as he jumped into the lead. Close behind him was Navy Lieutenant Commander J.J. Clark in another highly-modified Curtiss Hawk. One by one, all seven of the speed demons flashed past the scattering pylon as the crowds stood, cheering at the top of their lungs. Suddenly, they saw the little red Travel Air monoplane flown by Doug Davis catch up with Breene’s biplane and pass him to take the lead. Davis kept the throttle all the way forward as the roaring Wright radial gave all it had to keep the racer at the front of the field. The Type R’s glossy and highly polished red and black wings strained under the high G-forces imposed by 90-degree banks around every pylon along the course. Lap after lap the Travel Air slowly expanded its lead. ‘Only three more laps to go,’ thought Davis as he rounded another pylon and streaked down the backstretch at more 220 miles per hour (mph). Then disaster struck! Davis had ‘cut a pylon,’ meaning that he turned too soon and too tight, flying just inside of the marker. If he did not circle the pylon again he would be disqualified. The time spent correcting that mistake allowed Breene to quickly close the gap, but Davis held onto the lead and soon lapped Colonel Roscoe Turner flying his Lockheed Vega. Minutes later Doug and the speedy Travel Air took the checkered flag after flying for 14 minutes and posting an average speed of more than 194 mph.”
While Davis was busy in victory circle addressing the crowds and accepting the Thompson Trophy for his stunning victory, Mr. Beech walked around the field, puffing on his ubiquitous pipe and grinning ear-to-ear as he collected bets that reportedly exceeded $8,000.4
In addition to the little red monoplane’s triumph, other Travel Air pilots added to the company’s growing list of achievements at the 1929 NAR. These included engineer Ted Wells, who piloted his Type D-4000 equipped with “speed wings” to first place in the Portland-to-Cleveland race, and Louise Thaden, who flew her Type D-4000 biplane from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland (a distance of 2,500 miles), winning the inaugural Women’s Air Derby.5
Travel Air’s string of victories at the 1929 NAR quickly brought an order from the Shell Oil Company for a Type R custom-built to the specifications of their chief pilot, James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle. The airplane, painted in its dazzling red and yellow scallop scheme, was delivered to Doolittle on March 22, 1930 and cost the oil company a whopping $16,900. Upon Doolittle’s arrival at the Travel Air factory, he inspected every detail of the monoplane to ensure that it complied with the specifications. He flew the airplane and, in a letter to the author dated 1982, Jimmy wrote that the Shell Mystery Ship, as it was called by the company, was one of the best airplanes he ever flew.
Shell entered the racer in the 1930 NAR where it was flown by James Haizlip, another well-known pilot of the era and an associate of Doolittle’s. In the Thompson Trophy Race Haizlip placed second behind Charles “Speed” Holman flying the Laird Solution biplane – the only biplane to win the coveted trophy. During the remainder of 1930 and into 1931, Doolittle and Haizlip took turns flying the Type R until it was badly damaged when it collided on the ground with an Army training airplane. Declared as salvage by Shell late in 1930, Doolittle bought the wreckage in March 1931. He planned to sink all of his savings into rebuilding the ship into a powerful air racing warrior.
The reborn Type R was powered by a nine-cylinder, static, air-cooled radial engine built specifically for Doolittle by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. In its modified form, the Wasp Junior was rated at 560 horsepower. Doolittle flew the rebuilt monoplane for the first time on July 18, 1931. The takeoff was spectacular as the ship seemed to leap off the ground and hurled through the air at speeds exceeding 200 mph. A few minutes later, while leveling out barely 100 feet above the ground from a high-speed dive, Jimmy felt the ailerons yank hard on the stick, then the right wing became heavy.
Concluding that he could not regain control of the airplane, Doolittle pulled back hard on the stick,
Famed air racing pilot James Harold Doolittle modified the “Shell Mystery Ship” to compete in cross-country and pylon races. The photograph was snapped just minutes before Doolittle was forced to bail out of the stricken ship on its maiden
flight when aileron flutter occurred. (TEXTRON AVIATION)
24 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MARCH 2018