Heine Propeller

[Chester Bays]

What plane used this prop? The bolt size is .5 inch. The bolt circle is 5.9 inch. The bore has been rasped out to accommodate the clock. Hub thickness is calculated as 5.5 inch. This may have expanded due to moisture. "Heine Propeller" is clearly stamped with an oval blue stamp on one side and dimly stamped on the other side. On the left side appears to be figures 1119 1160.
On the right side are letters and figures read as GEPRUFT ERS ART 2
We are sure of the left side figures unless we are reading them upside down.

[Bob Gardner]

Your prop hub dates from 1915-1918. Heine was a leading German prop maker during WWI. The markings to which you refer are the airworthiness stamps and the figure 1160 refers to the revs achieved on test. Here, they are for a rotary engine, the 100hp Gnome or Oberursel engine used on the Fokker E types and the Fokker Dr I.

With kind regards,

Bob

[Chester Bays]

Many thanks. I had difficulty with this forum, needed help, and didn't realize we had earlier posted essentially the same data -- minus the photos.

My wife's uncle, Carl Heidelberger, a WW I foot soldier, now long deceased,
handed down this propeller, writing a very interesting history and giving details of his removing it from Oswald Boelcks's downed Albatros II. For reasons we will never know, apparently he misled us.

[Bob Gardner]

I'm glad to be able to help but sorry that I could not confirm Carl Heidelberger's story.

Before I became a dealer in WW1 aircraft props I assumed that family oral histories would be completely accurate, but often they are not. Quite often people tell me something about their prop which they obviously believe to be completely true and are amazed when I tell them it is not so. Typically, a family history is that great-grand-father flew Sopwith Camels in WW1 and that they have his prop for sale. But the prop turns out to be from a WW2 training aircraft such as the Tiger Moth.

It would seem that young people do not always listen to old people and old people sometimes have a memory of their past which changes.

I know from personal experience that stories I relate about wars that I have been in do not match those of friends who were with me at the time.

With kind regards,

Bob