Please help with ID

[seagull]

Hi All,

Glad I have found this site !

Please can anyone help with the ID of a Prop that has been in my family for over 65 years – My great granddad brought it from a scrap yard just after the war and it hung in his pub in the East End of London until the late 60s.

It is marked with Tibbenham 528 other marking are PP 6809 & 120 HP. AD.

Photos attached

Any help would be greatly appreciated as it has remand a mystery in our family.

Thanks in advance

[Bob Gardner]

Greetings Seagull,

Welcome to the forum.

Your prop is British and was made by Tibbenham in Ipswich, probably in 1915. Those small squares are in effect airworthiness stamps from inspectors of the Aeronautical Inspection Department. 120hp AD refers to the 120hp Austro-Daimler engine made by Beardmore, originally under licence before WW1 started in August 1914.

Almost certainly your prop was a pusher prop for the Royal Aircraft Factory designed FE2B. The drawing number should be somewhere on the hub, often on the side. It shows the diameter and pitch in mm as well. With your prop it should read;

T5638
D 2795
P 1630

If they don't exist or have been sanded off, the prop should be 9ft 2 ins long.

Let us know what you find.

With kind regards,

Bob

[seagull]

Hi Bob,

Thanks you for your reply, it looks like you have solved our mystery!

I have attached a couple of pics, you can just make out T5638 & also just about FE 2B. It is also exactly 9.2 feet long.

I have looked up FE 2B and it looks to have 4 blades? Is it 2 of what looks like mine bolted together (layman's terms....)? Also please could you give an idea of value for insurance purpose?

Thank you so much for you help & expert knowledge again!

[Dave]

Look VERY closely at the hub. Sometimes 2 of the blades were removed to make transport easier, and it's not that hard to machine what's left to make it look like a 2 blade.

[seagull]

Hi Dave,

Guess this is a possibility, but this is not something that has been done in my families ownership, it was found in a scrap yard covered in oil & grease in the 40s.

I can't see any obvious signs of it having 4 blades - but I'm no expert. Must have been done before we found it & as it looks like the fe2b has 4 blades - must be the answer!?!?

Cheers

[Bob Gardner]

Hi Dave and Seagull,

This prop was always intended to be a two bladed prop. It wasn't part of a four bladed prop. The British hardly did that.

This prop, T5638, was the standard prop for the FE2B from November 1917, and probably for at least two years before that; the listing of standard props only started in Nov 1917 when the Air Board was formed.

Two bladed props were used on the Beardmore 120 and 160 hp engines. Four bladed props such as T26005 came in later when 200 and 275hp engines were used on the FE2B. These engines needed a bigger prop to transmit the power but the constricted space caused by the pusher configuration with booms on either side meant that only a four bladed prop could provide the greater blade area. Four bladed props were then fitted to the 160hp Beardmore as well.

With kind regards,

Bob

[seagull]

Thanks Bob!

Are there many left in existence & do you have an idea of value for insurance?

Thanks again for tying up all the loose ends!

[Bob Gardner]

All WW1 props are exceedingly rare. I don't think I have seen an example of your prop before. If offered at auction here in Britain it would sell for around £1200 GBP, but auctions are very variable and it could make from £800 to £1600.

For insurance purposes its value is £2500 but you would have little or no possibilty of finding another example, but this sum would find you a two-bladed WW1 prop of similar age.

It is thought that the value of these props will continue to increase and that they will jump in price from 2014 onwards when the centenary of WW1 will generate media and public interest in all aspects of the war.

With kind regards,

Bob