Please help identify this propeller blade

[adg]

Hi All,

I would very much appreciate your help in identifying the propeller in the attached photos. It appears to be a wood / laminate blade on a steel base.

It has the following markings on the base:

Stamped in a round circle: ELF 1

Stamped: RA 5812 (or RA 5S12) 12935

Thanks in advance!

[Dave]

I'd try contacting Monte Chase on his website http://www.notplanejane.com. I'm not sure it's even wooden, but it's clearly a variable pitch blade.

[Bob Gardner]

Your prop is made by Rotol of compressed resin-impregnated wood. The number that you quote is for a Rotol adaptor which was widely used with the RR Merlin engine for the Spitfire, Hurricane, Whitley, Lancaster, Beaufighter, Halifax, Battle, Defiant, Fulmar, Wrekin, Baracuda, York and a few others that I can't remember off the cuff.

There might be a number further up the hub for the blade type, which might link it to one type of aircraft. RA4080 would be an example.

With kind regards,

Bob

[adg]

Thank you very much!

Really appreciate the help!

I did find this blade also on the internet which seems very very similar also:
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=82292

[Dave]

Beware of drawing conclusions from propellers that "look similar". They are very much like tires - produced in large quantities and designed for a specific application and rim, etc. Thousands of them look the same, but are not interchangeable. Even as early as WW1 and shortly afterwards there were literally thousands of different propeller designs as well.

[adg]

Thanks Dave I'll remember that!

Bob - had a good look and found the following additional number stamped onto the hub on the other side: D15361

Does that narrow it down any further?

Thanks again for all your help!

[Bob Gardner]

Sorry, no.

I think this number is a production number.

Bob

[Neil Morgan]

Another Propeller blade

Hello All,

Forgive me for tagging onto this thread, but I also have a blade to identify.

It's from the small collection of my late father-in-law so I have no information as to where it originated.

I have one blade marked RA10160/RTS, and also with a red circle with the following numbers on it

top to bottom

RS
272211
277811
281540
280000

My searches so far indicate it to be a Rotol blade made of resin impregnated wood, (JABLO?) with a wear strip on the leading edge. On another forum it says

"RA10160 were used on R23/4B6/4 props fitted to Firebrand Mks. III, IV & V"

Is this true, and are there any other applications for this blade?
I also might have to dispose of this for my wife, any ideas of value? There are also a couple of more mundane fixed pitch propellers for a Gypsy Major and Cirrus Major III, but I think these are much more common.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Bob Gardner]

Good Morning Neil,

Your information is correct. The blade was only used on the Blackburn Firebrand Mk III, IV and V.

We might be able to identify your Cirrus and Gypsy props if you tell us the data.

E-mail me at aeroclocks at (written phonetically like this to deceive the harvesting bots) btinternet dot com and I'll be able to offer advice on how to dispose of them, which in the UK is generally at auction.

With kind regards,

Bob

[Neil Morgan]

Thanks so much for that Bob, I will certainly email when I have taken a few snaps. Any advice will be gratefully received.

Neil