Gothaer Waggonfabrik

[gino]

Hi,

Here my Gothaer propeller with following details;

GWF
No 257
D 317 ST 172
COW 37591 ( not sure this number is fully correct. Difficult to read)
EDUL DRUK
D19


No engine type visible or available.
One blade has been shorted by 10 cm.
Weight 23 kg.
Seems to be a flow example.
This is a very impressive propeller.

I assume, this is a Gothaer propeller, build for the Gotha bomber!
Anybody who can confirm this!
What would the the production date?

Thank you,
Best regards
Gino

More pictures to follow

[gino]

One more picture

[gino]

And one more

[gino]

An other picture

[gino]

One more photo

[Bob Gardner]

Gino,

This propeller was made by Gotha for the Gotha G Va bomber and dates from late 1917 or 1918. I know of two other examples with serial numbers 151 and 474.

I don't know what D19 means. The Gotha G Va was powered by the Mercedes D IV of 260ps, so perhaps D19 is DIV?

Nor do I know what COW37591 means. I have only seen COW on one other Gotha propeller, COW9110. If any of our fellow forumites know, please tell us.

The propeller was used in a pusher configuration. Almost all German aircraft used a tractor configuration where the acronym is the well known EDULZUG.

EDUL is the abbreviation for Entgegen Dem Uhrzeiger Lauf meaning against-the-direction-in-which-the-clockhand-runs; anti clockwise in English; and ZUG meaning pull, or tractor in an aviation context. Clockwise would be MDUL ZUG, with M referring to Mit (with); thus: with-the-direction-in-which-the-clockhand-runs. This terminology refers to the direction of rotation viewed from the front of the aircraft, which is opposite to the British, US, and French terminology, which describes the rotation as viewed from behind the propeller.

Pusher configurations were described as EDULDRUCK (some times EDULDRUK as in yours) where EDUL describes a propeller with anticlockwise rotation and where DRUCK translates as push. Such propellers were very rare in Germany in WWI. In my database, which records all German propellers I have noted in the last quarter of a century, the ratio of pusher props to tractor props is about 1:8.5. (don't assume this is a statistically correct ratio for German propellers per se; it merely reflects the choice made by people long ago to save a propeller and those which survived to the present day and have appeared in the public domain where I've seen them!)

With kind regards,

Bob

[gino]

Bob,
Thank you for the info.
As you only know about 2 other remaining propeller today, I assume, this
is also a very rare propeller! When I am back home, I will try to find out about
this D19 number and upload some more pictures.

Best regards
Gino

[gino]

Here a picture with D19 or maybe D10

[gino]

One more picture

[Bob Gardner]

Thanks Gino; I don't know what it can be. I don't recall seeing such a thing before.

Bob