Granger Williams

The history of aviation has produced only a few men with enough courage to gamble on their convictions. The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, Tony Fokker, Clyde Cessna, Giuseppe Bellanca, Don Douglas, Walt Beech, Jack Northrop were some. And the Granville Brothers. The Gee Bees were all remarkable aircraft that contributed greatly to the advancement of aerodynamic engineering. Many of the Granville's innovations were used in other aircraft for many years. Yet the news media jumped on the misfortunes befalling those who built aircraft, blowing any mishap completely out of proportion to actuality. This expanding of news of accidents into catastrophy contributed most to the downfall of the Granville Brothers Aircraft Company. In all crashes involving Gee Bee aircraft, human failure or pilot error contributed most, with mechanical failures only a secondary factor. All Gee Bees aircraft, as originally designed and flown, were good airplanes. Only when modified with greater horsepower and fuel tankage did they get into trouble with stability problems. These changes were not authorized by the manufacturer.