Page 27 - Volume 12, Number 3

climbed to about 500 feet and bailed out of the crippled ship, which had rolled over on its back. He pulled the parachute’s ripcord immediately after jumping clear of airplane. The parachute had barely inflated when he hit the ground. Seconds later the ground shook as Jimmy’s expensive racer buried itself into the Illinois sod. Investigation revealed that an aileron push-pull tube had failed. Bruised but not seriously injured, Doolittle walked up to the smoking wreckage, much of it scattered around
the area for hundreds of feet and found his ripcord. He considered it a good-luck charm, as he had just made one of the lowest and most dangerous bailouts on record.6
Only one other Type R was built to race – the Texaco No. 13. It was specifically constructed to specifications set forth by Captain Frank Monroe Hawks. He took delivery of the ship on July 5, 1930, but an accident occurred on July 11 that put Hawks in the hospital
The Texas Company ordered a custom-built Type R for the express use of chief pilot Frank Monroe Hawks. He set cross-country and inter-city speed records in the United States and set similar records with Texaco 1313 in Europe. (TEXTRON AVIATION)
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