Help Me Verify Family Legend: Is My Prop from a 1919 NC?

[bartusiak]

I just inherited a World War I vintage wooden propeller from my late father, which family legend says was a replacement prop for one of the historic NC planes that crossed the Atlantic in 1919. Could it be true?

The research I've done so far on the web keeps the legend alive....somewhat. From the markings on the hub, I believe I have a Paragon propeller. And the hub size suggests it fit on a Liberty engine (the kind used for the NCs). The markings are:

9' 6" x 500
PP 163 MH
IYP H-16
1888
FCR

The H-16, of course, suggests the prop was built for the Curtiss H-16 flying boat. But that doesn't necessarily rule out its use on the NCs. The H-16 came before the NCs. And from a 1919 New York Times article I read, Paragon propellers in storage were put on the NC-4, NC-1, and NC-3 in Halifax (where they had flown before crossing the Atlantic) to replace Olmsted propellers that were cracking. However, the NY Times article refers to the copper sheathing on the prop tips as being 36 inches in length; for my prop it's 26 inches.

My father, who was an officer in the Naval Reserve, got the propeller from the Philadelphia Navy Yard in the 1950s. At the time, they considered it surplus. That's where he was told of its connection to the NCs.

There are other possible scenarios:

1. The prop was a back-up for the NCs, but was not used and returned to Philadelphia.

2. It was solely a prop for the H-16.

3. Further NCs were built in Philadelphia after the historic flight. Perhaps it was used on one of them (and, hence, got mis-identified with the first NCs).

Was a nine-and-half-foot propeller used on a NC? Is there information on what happened to NC-1 and NC-3 after the flight (the NC-4 is in the Smithsonian)? Any help from out there would be greatly appreciated.

Marcia

[MWP_Lamar]

NC-4 is at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL on loan from the Smithsonian. See http://collections.naval.aviation.mu...e=%2FQuery.php.

Lamar

[bartusiak]

Thanks

Thanks for the update. An old book noted it was in the Smithsonian. I didn't realize it was now on loan.

[Dave]

It's most likely that your prop is indeed designed for an H-16 and was never used or intended to be used on the NC4. In the late teens the Navy had a gigantic surplus of propellers for their flying boats. They soon became obsolete and were sold off by the thousands in the early twenties. While many propellers would fit a variety of aircraft (since many used the same engines) there really was no good reason to do so.

Many propellers come with various versions of folklore attached to them, but in my experience very few of those are even credible, and even harder to prove.

[bartusiak]

One Out of Many

You're probably right, Dave. The more I look into the details, the more I realize my father was likely misled on the history of this propeller. Yet, I'm still thrilled to have a vintage World-War-I-era wooden propeller in my home, a fond remembrance of my father, a Navy pilot, who later built his own airplane (a BD-4) in his garage and flew it around the country.

[Dave]

It's certainly worth keeping for all of those reasons, and more.

BTW, are the blades diamond shaped, or curved?