, hoping to at least get in some pylon racing at Cleveland.
At this
point in my story we must go back
to early 1932 and the second race plane that Bob Hall was
building under contract. It also was due to be finished in
time to compete in the 1932 Cleveland Air Races that were to
begin August 27th and run through September 5th.
This second
race plane designed and built by Bob Hall was a beautiful
gull wing design. It was a single place speedster which was
expected to be the equal of any other ship entered in the
Cleveland National Air Races. This, of course, meant that an
exciting rivalry was shaping up in Springfield between the
Granvilles and the new Hall group.
The new gull
winged racer was built under contract for Marion Price
Guggenheim of the New York family, well known for their
support of all types of aeronautical activities. The
contract stipulated that only Russell Thaw or a pilot
designated by him, would be permitted to fly the new race
plane. Young Thaw was known as the playboy of east coast
society circles and worked as chief pilot for the Guggenheim
family, flying a Lockheed Air Express and a Vega. Mrs.
Guggenheim would later christen this new race plane the
"Bulldog", in honour of the famed Yale University mascot.
Hall chose
the gull wing design because he thought it would produce
longitudinal stability. He also designed a rather intricate
exhaust system with pipes exiting at right angles to the air
stream and flush with outer contours of the engine cowling .
. . the theory being to create a low pressure area in the
exhaust ports to better scavenge exhaust gases, thus
increasing the volumetric efficiency of the supercharger.
The engine was the same as mounted in the "Cicada", a P&W
Wasp Jr., which developed 535 hp. Hamilton Standard made
available to Hall one of their first handmade controllable
pitch propellers for use on the "Bulldog". The wing span was
26 feet with a fuselage length of 19 feet. The racer was
painted red and black with a white separator stripe and was
assigned race No. 6 for the Cleveland races.
As July
slipped into August, feverish preparations were carried on
by the Hall group to ready the "Bulldog" for the Cleveland
Nationals. The schedule called for an early August test
program before the racer would be turned over to Russell
Thaw, the chosen race pilot.
Hall held to
his schedule and began the testing of the "Bulldog" early in
August 1932. His speedy gull wing racer almost came to grief
on its very first test flight. As he roared down the runway
on his first take-off, the "Bulldog" started to roll to the
left at about 10 feet of altitude. Hall cut the engine and
got the wing up enough to clear the ground as it fell back
to earth on its left wheel. Skillfully he brought the other
wheel down and the airplane rolled to a stop. The excess
shock caused the left tire to blow out with resulting damage
to the wheel pants, which was easily repaired. The
"Bulldog's" fin was then modified three times and the rudder
four times, before Hall was satisfied with the ship's flight
characteristics. This was because
the gull wing was directionally destabilizing to a degree
that Hall had not foreseen. While this was going on, the
ejector exhaust system was removed because insufficient time
remained to iron out various unforeseen details of heat
expansion and contraction of various parts.
Russell
Thaw, the chosen race pilot, then got the chance to fly the
"Bulldog". At the last minute Thaw expressed dissatisfaction
with the airplane. He indicated that he probably would not
fly the plane during the National Air Races after all. There
was no indication of whether he would choose a substitute
pilot or if Hall himself might fly the plane. Hall's
associates were very disappointed over this sudden turn of
events and it was hoped that money could be raised to
repurchase the plane from Mrs. Guggenheim. The plane had
been officially delivered to Thaw only a few hours before
his decision to withdraw it from the races.
Russell Thaw
was quoted by newsmen as saying. "The ship is not my idea of
a racer". He declined to elaborate on the statement and
things were pretty much up in the air. Hall meanwhile flew
the plane to Roosevelt Field to confer with Mrs. Guggenheim.
He reportedly had managed to dig up enough money for the
ship's repurchase. This did not transpire but at least he
came away from the conference with permission to fly the
plane himself in the Cleveland races. At least Hall would
not be denied the chance to test his design against that of
the Granville group in the famous Thompson Trophy Race. He
had missed his chance to enter the Bendix race because of
his lengthy conference with Mrs. Guggenheim.
Meanwhile,
Frank Lynch had just completed the installation of the new
Wasp Jr. engine in his "Cicada" as Bob Hall arrived back at
Bowles-Agawam Field with permission to fly the "Bulldog" at
Cleveland. They had both missed the Bendix race, so with all
due speed they climbed into their airplanes and headed for
Cleveland and hopefully some good pylon
racing.
At Cleveland
preparations were getting underway for the Shell speed
dashes, qualifying event for the famous Thompson Trophy
Race. Much to everyone's delight, the Hall "Bulldog" and the
Hall "Cicada" came in over the canvas-covered Brookpark Road
fence, (the north boundary of the Cleveland Airport), and
taxied up to the hangar line. Once in Cleveland the new
engine on the "Cicada" began to act up and Lynch and his
airplane were forced to sit out the entire Cleveland races.
Bob Hall and the "Bulldog" fared much better as Hall
qualified his racer at 243.717 mph in the Shell speed dash,
which meant he would be a competitor in the Thompson race.
The 1932
Thompson Trophy race would be 10 laps around a 10-mile
course. It was flown on Monday afternoon, September 5th. The
"Big Daddy" of closed-course air racing events drew eight
contestants: Jimmy Doolittle in the Gee Bee R-1, Lee
Gehlbach flying the Gee Bee R-2 Jimmy Wedell, Roscoe Turner
and James Haizlip in their Wedell
Williams Specials, Bob Hall in his red, black and white
"Bulldog", Bill Ong in Howard's "Ike" and Ray Moore in the
"San Francisco I". With a quick chop of the starter's flag
and the boom of a mortar, the racers were off in a
race-horse start.
Hall was first off the
ground and around the scatter pylon, but Doolittle in the
Gee Bee R-1 passed him almost at once and began pulling
away. In the second lap, Ray Moore dropped out with engine
trouble and Hall fell back into sixth place. Jimmy Wedell
moved up to second place, Turner third, Haizlip fourth,
Gehlbach fifth and Ong brought up the rear. The race ended
in that order. Jimmy Doolittle lapped the entire field at
least once and roared over the finish line trailing smoke
and pulling farther ahead with each revolution of the Gee
Bee's eight foot prop. Doolittle's average speed, a new
closed-course record, was 252.7 mph. Wedell in second place
had 242.5 mph. Bob Hall placed sixth at 215.57 mph. Needless
to say, he was a very disappointed young man. Once again the
Granville brothers had proved their ideas for fast aircraft
were correct.
There was
some conjecture, after the race, that the basic pitch
settings on the experimental Hamilton Standard controllable
pitch propeller on Hall's "Bulldog" did not permit the Wasp
Jr. to develop peak power during the closed course Thompson
event. Hamilton Standard, as well as Pratt and Whitney
engineers, analyzing the "Bulldog's" sluggish performance
were anxious to correct the horsepower shortage, but this
never did come about.
A short time
after the 1932 Cleveland Air Races a disappointed,
disillusioned and disgusted Bob Hall dismantled the
"Bulldog" so that it would never race again. Cleveland Model
Supply, a well known Cleveland model airplane kit
manufacturer acquired the cowling, wheel pants and cockpit
canopy, the only large pieces remaining after the aircraft
was torn apart. These last remaining parts of the "Bulldog"
were eventually donated to a scrap metal collection in
Cleveland during World War II. The "Cicada" on the other