Aircraft identification - Hawker Horsley?

[Dthomas22]

Good evening everyone,

I would be very grateful if someone could help me identify the airplane my propeller was designed for? We got very excited tonight when we thought we found it on the British Props spreadsheet on woodenpropeller.com, however the cell for "aircraft" was blank. Below is the information I have to date. Apart from the missing aircraft, the only difference was in diameter. On my propeller it says D3280, where in the spreadsheet it states D3220:

Design Number: Watts 740
Aircraft: blank (Hawker Horsley?)
Engine: Rolls Royce Condor
Blades: 2
Dia: 3220 (says 3280 on my propeller)
Pitch: 3200
Comments: Feb 27 (matches date on my propeller)

On my propeller it also says Condor 7669-2 on it and also G 4658 N I.

Thank you in advance to anyone who might be able to shed some light on this, as we're really excited to see how much of the jigsaw we can piece together around the history of the propeller.

Many thanks,

David

[Dbahnson]

I'd first measure the actual diameter and see if it's 3220 or 3280 cms. Props were often mis-stamped and rejected from use but sold off as souvenirs, which is how some of them survived.

I'd say the odds are high that it was designed for a Hawker Horsley, but it's not absolutely certain without more definitive documentation.

[Dthomas22]

Good morning and thank you very much for your reply. I have measured the propeller again and it is exactly 3280mm, so the writing on it must be correct. Assuming I have uploaded them correctly, I have also attached 6 images of the propeller, in case the provide any further clues. I'm assuming there was a large amount of experimentation at this time, so do you think this propeller was just a slight variation of the D3220 to test its performance? Is there anyway to know for sure if it was made for a Hawker Horsley?

[Dbahnson]

I think that your analysis is pretty much spot on, and it's not uncommon to find variations that aren't listed on the various sources.

Generally when you see a cluster of similar elements like that they are "most likely" designed for the same aircraft, and you are correct about the experimentation and variation that was undertaken then.

[Dbahnson]

I think that your analysis is pretty much spot on, and it's not uncommon to find variations that aren't listed on the various sources.

Generally when you see a cluster of similar elements like that they are "most likely" designed for the same aircraft, and you are correct about the experimentation and variation that was undertaken then.

Note also that yours is a left hand rotation, and the photos on the web of the Horsley all look to be left hand (which is a function of the engine rotation, but it all fits).

[Dthomas22]

Thanks a lot for that. Much appreciated. I saw that Bob Gardner had posted a thread with regards to the database for WW1 propellers. I appreciate our propeller is from 1927, however I'm wondering whether it might be useful to add the propeller details onto a database? We had the joiner over last night and so hopefully we'll have it proudly displayed in our hallway in the coming weeks. Thanks again for all of your help and it has been really exciting to piece the story together.