Hartzell Prop ID

[mhoffman]

Found an old propeller in my father-in-law's storage shed and was hoping for some help.

Stampings say:
Hartzell
DESIGN 420
SR NO 10002

It has 8 holes in the hub.

[Dave]

It's probably for a Mercury CHIC TA, which I've never heard of.

Look here for the listing.

[mhoffman]

I did see that chart with the 420-52. My prop does not have the '-52' behind it. Any idea what that would reference?

[mhoffman]

I spoke with the Mercury Aircraft company and did find some info. If the prop did come off a CHIC, there are two varants the CHIC T-2 and the "S". No such thing as a TA. There were two "S" models built - S1 and S2. They were purpose built for speed records. The CHIC T-2 was a training version. I am checking with the Glenn Curtis Museum, who have one of each, to see if the prop DESIGN and SR NO match. I will let you know. Very cool stuff.

[Dave]

I did see that chart with the 420-52. My prop does not have the '-52' behind it. Any idea what that would reference?

The 52 is the pitch in inches. Looking at the certification data (TC 619), 52 inches is the only pitch that was certified for that model number, so they really didn't need to stamp it as such.

[mhoffman]

Turns out the S1 and S2 are a totally different bird. Not relevant here. The Mercury CHIC T-2 at the Glenn Curtis Museum - which is supposed to be the remaining example of the plane - has a prop that is very similar in appearance, but has SR NO 9530 and DESIGN 325 and is 2" shorter than my prop.

[Dave]

The Curtiss Museum had an original Oriole airplane, but stuck some other propeller on it. I had an Oriole propeller that I offered to trade with them, but they never quite seemed interested. Go figure. I suspect you've got the correct one and they don't.