Supermarine Spitfire MK 1 - wooden two bladed

[dairwin]

Straight away, it is a left hand propeller, which is the wrong rotation for a Merlin. Not a Spitfire propeller. (This is a photo of a Hurricane Watts propeller fitted to my Merlin II. Dates from 1938 )

[Dbahnson]

"the only expert I'm aware of" Thanks for the confidence in your membership.

My mistake and my apologies. I thought we were talking about variable pitch propellers with metal hub assemblies. I didn't realize that Spitfires would have a fixed pitch wooden prop. That's one good reason that I'm not an expert.

[KeithMuller]

From your experience what would you think it’s off? The information that it came from Baragwanath is I believe correct. Could it be from a tiger moth?

[dairwin]

Keith; there are more wooden propeller designs than I could count! The Airscrew Company that manufactured the Watts or Weybridge propeller, produced several thousand designs. Dr Henry Watts was a leading designer of the day and became a director of the company. If you thoroughly cleaned the surface of the hub (I would use a wet-wipe type of rag) you may find an embossed number somewhere. I do not believe the metal plate retained by 6 screws is an original propeller data plate, it looks like a presentation plate for someone to engrave a name etc. It has been on the hub for a long time as it seems to be stained and the screw heads look somewhat beaten with experience. I do not recognise the circular metal plate on the front of the hub as a propeller part either. It is retained by 8 pins/bolts which are not aero standard. Perhaps under this plate there may be more information. However, a Watts propeller usually had either embossed lettering or numbering and/or a data plate. Attached is a photo of the data plate on my Hurricane Z38 propeller as a reference. It provides the provenance of the propeller. On my prop there is no other embossing, only this data plate. You might wish to measure the dimensions of the hub, this may help as well. These are my hub measurements as an idea.

[KeithMuller]

Many thanks for all the help, I greatly appreciate it!

[dairwin]

If you find anymore information or markings on the hub, then let us know. The answer is out there!

[Mtskull]

From your experience what would you think it’s off? The information that it came from Baragwanath is I believe correct. Could it be from a tiger moth?

The 8 bolt holes and left hand rotation are consistent with a Tiger Moth but, if I were a betting man, my money would be on Airspeed Oxford or Avro Anson. Both used Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engines (also 8 bolt holes and left hand rotation) and both were used in large numbers by the South African Air Force.
I have seen photographs of many such propellers which carry a data plate in exactly the same position as the metal plate on this propeller; why this one has been replaced with a blank plate is anybody’s guess. Unless a design number is stamped somewhere else, the only way of identifying it with reasonable certainty that I can think of would be to physically compare it with another example of known origin.