wooden propeller blade

[Harold Lake]

One of the more esoteric topics dealing with German propeller design and research during the Third Reich had to do with the number of blades, whether of wood or metal, favored by the aircraft industry. For example, with few exceptions, only aircraft with turbosuperchargers used 4-blade props. An exception was the multi-engine Heinkel 177, but in the area of single and twin-engine fighters, 4-blade props were very rare. Contrast this approach with that of the Allies (and maybe even Japan) and you see a pattern. Years ago, a friend told me that it was his opinion German propeller R&D was way ahead of the Allies. Maybe, but I think this could be a hard case to prove.

Hal

[Sparrow]

I have two more complete propeller blades of the same type:


The number is: 9-17302 A-4
WNr. rlf 81695/1 on one blade (WNr. rlf 81940/2 on other)