Keith Rider R-1
The Keith Rider R-1 was a single-seat racing monoplane built by Keith Rider of San Francisco and campaigned at the National Air Races from 1931 to 1936. An all-metal low-wing design with an aluminium monocoque fuselage, retractable landing gear and a Menasco Buccaneer six-cylinder engine, it raced as San Francisco under race number 131 and won its displacement-class events at the 1931, 1932 and 1933 Nationals with Ray Moore flying. Later flown by Roger Don Rae and finally by its owner Rudy Kling, who renamed it Suzy for 1936, it was demolished in a landing accident at the 1936 Nationals; no original survives.
Why It Mattered
The Keith Rider R-1 was the first of the R-series racers that Keith Rider built for the National Air Races, opening a line that ran from 1931 through to the R-6 of 1938. It came from the small-workshop end of golden-age racing, an era in which, as Smithsonian Magazine describes it, racing technology was pushed forward by small companies and individuals chasing prize money rather than by government contracts or large corporations. The R-1 showed what that approach could do, winning its displacement-class events at the Nationals in 1931, 1932 and 1933. Its speed rested on drag reduction: an all-metal monocoque fuselage and a retractable landing gear, in place of the wood construction of Rider's own B-1 of the year before.
Design Notes
The R-1 was a single-seat, low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, built around an aluminium monocoque fuselage that gave it a smooth, cigar-shaped form. It spanned 21 feet 4 inches and measured 19 feet in length. Power came from a Menasco Buccaneer six-cylinder inline engine. Its retractable landing gear consisted of two stiff struts, with no shock absorption beyond the air in the tyres; the wheels did not retract completely, so the racer could be landed gear-up with minimum damage. For 1932 the cowling was cleaned up, the exhaust outlets made flush with the fairing surface. For 1936 its owner enclosed the cockpit completely and fitted a new nose cowl and a propeller spinner.
Operational History
The R-1 was owned by the San Francisco Racing Group, headed by Bob Clampett, who flew it at the 1931 Los Angeles Air Fiesta and won both the 800 and 1350 cubic-inch free-for-all races. At the 1931 Nationals, Ray Moore won the 800 cubic-inch event and placed second in the 1000 cubic-inch race. In 1932 Moore won the Phillips Trophy race for the 800 class and placed seventh in the Shell Speed Dash at 237.74 mph, but was forced out of the Thompson Trophy race on the second lap. In 1933 he took one first and four second places in the 550 cubic-inch events at Los Angeles, and Steve Wittman later flew the racer at the Chicago International Air Races, dropping out of one event when its oil tank exploded. By 1934 the R-1 belonged to Rudy Kling of Lemont, Illinois, and Roger Don Rae flew it at the Nationals, taking two second places in the 550 cubic-inch races, a third in the Shell Speed Dash, and fifth in the 1000 cubic-inch event. Rae flew it again in 1935, placing second and third in the Greve Trophy races and third in the Thompson at 213.94 mph. Renamed Suzy for 1936, with Kling himself flying, it placed second and fourth in its class events. Landing from the second of those races, Kling tried to land through a gap left by another wreck; a car had moved into the space, and the racer struck it, was completely demolished, and Kling emerged unhurt.
Afterlife
The R-1 was never rebuilt after 1936, and no original survives. What remains is its record: the Aircraft Engine Historical Society's survey of Menasco-engined racers tabulates six consecutive Nationals seasons for the aircraft, from the first Menasco victories of 1931 through its final races in 1936. The line it began can still be seen at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California, which holds Rider's later R-4 Firecracker and the original R-6, his last design, restored to its 1938 configuration. Those survivors stand for the small-workshop racers of the period, machines campaigned, in Smithsonian Magazine's words, by people driven by prize money and the thrill of the race.