I was recently asked to endorse a product for a Radio Control Airplane version of the famous Gee Bee R-1 Racer! This was the airplane that Jimmy Doolittle flew and won the famous Thompson Trophy Race in Cleveland, OH in 1932. They actually built two versions of the airplane: one for racing in the Thompson closed-course pylon races and another for participating in the cross-country Bendix Race from Los Angeles to Cleveland.
I’m now on the side of a box!
We’re fortunate to have a reproduction of the airplane on display at Fantasy of Flight, which has since become one of the characters in my illustrated children’s book series. The first book is called All of Life is a School and I’m rapidly narrowing down on my second one.
It’s a cute little airplane with an electric motor. Guess what it weighs with the motor and all the radio control gear in it? FIVE OUNCES! They brought one out for the photo shoot and later flew it for me off the ramp. How cool!
While we aren’t getting paid for the endorsement, we are getting some great advertising on the side of the box to help advertise Fantasy of Flight.
I used to fly R/C airplanes when I was a kid and now joke to people that I crashed so many of them, it got too expensive . . . so I got into collecting Warbirds!
Kermit