Unknown IPC 80 Le Rhone Prop

[cooper]

Hello, I'm James and I am new to this forum.

I have recently purchased my first prop (well half - hub and single blade) and I am confused about it. I was told it was from an aircraft which crashed in 1930. My reserarch suggests its for a 80hp le rhone engine of earlier vintage.

The markings are as follows:

IPC 2360
80 Le Rhone
G1622 N20
DIA 2500
PITCH 2400

A very similiar prop was used on the sopwith pup with the 80hp le rhone engine but not identical, having a litch of 2430. Were the pups perhaps used as trainers around 1930?

Does anyone have any jdeas what aircraft this could be from please?

Any advice would be gratefully recieved

[Bob Gardner]

Greetings James,

The drg no identifies it as a prop made for the Sopwith Pup. The batch number, 1622, can be dated to August 1919 to January 1920. It may have been an open contract for a handful of different props made on an as-required basis. Batch 1623 was for Pup and Avro 504K props.

Your data translates as;
IPC 2360 The Integral Propeller Company's drawing number
80 Le Rhone The 80hp French rotary engine
G1622 N20 The twentieth prop in batch number 1622
DIA 2500 Diameter in mm
PITCH 2400 Pitch in mm

With kind regards,

Bob

[Bob Gardner]

And as an afterthought, there were several civilian Pups around in the 1920's, so your prop might have been on a Pup sold off as surplus by the Aircraft Disposal Company in the 1920's, which its civilian owner crashed in the 1930's.

But I should add the caveat that most of the histories which come with props do not stand scrutiny and I believe none of them unless accompanied with period proof, such as photographs or letters or diaries. It is sufficient, I suggest, to own a prop designed less than ten years after the first flight by an aircraft in Britain.

Bob

[cooper]

Hi Bob,

wow, thanks for the information, that is great.

I have just been given the other information, here it is:
Crashed in between the wars estimated in the 1930's.
Crashed in wooded land. Prop was the only decent piece left when he visited site at a later date.
Father was based at Boscombe down and his name was Hart.

I know what you say with provenance etc, I collect WW1 items and this is key. This is for my own personal collection, in fact my wife has even agreed to have it displayed on the dining room wall! But of course I wear the trousers!


thanks for your help again. This is where it now gets even more interesting when I dig out the history.

Kind regards,

James

[Bob Gardner]

James,

It sounds as though research might be fruitful. Good luck. Please let us know what you discover.

With kind regards,

Bob

[cooper]

Many thanks Bob, I certainly will.

the crash actually happened at Boscombe Down, apologies I didnt make it clear.
What is strange was that after 1920 the base was closed until 1926 but didnt become operational until 1930 but with Vickers Virginias. Not sure of the link with an obsolete Sopwith Pup unless it crashed around 1920 or it was used for training some of the bomber crews early on 1930ish??

Cooper

[cooper]

I am going to see if I can meet the original owner of the prop on saturday and get some better information. He will be visiting the auction where I got my prop from. Not sure of value but I daresay worth more than I paid for it.

I do have one more query. Batch 1623 for sopwith pups and avro 504's as you were good enough to let me know. Was batch 1622 the same or just for pups? There were only 7 pups registered for civilian use but by 1924 they had disappeared. I cannot find any fixed references for pups in the raf past 1924 and I imagine the later ones had the 100hp engine not the 80 le rhone.
The avro 504 however was used as a trainer into the 30's so it could be a more plausible option that this prop was from a crashed 504???
I just tried to upload a pic but was unable to. I will try again
Thanks

Cooper