Identification of Propeller

[Tammy]

I have a propellar that my husband found underneath an old house. It is approximately 8ft tall, wooden, with the edges and tips capped with metal. It has 8 holes in the center. You can make out 2 of the numbers beneath the holes in the center- 8 and 2. Then on one of the props there is some lettering and the only letters you can make out is SHO. The coloring of the letters is gold with black background. If there is anyone who might have a clue as to what type of propellar this please help.

[Dave]

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of possibilities.

A picture might help. Are you referring to a decal that's visible?

[Tammy]

Identification of Decal on Propeller

There is a partial decal that is visible on the prop. I know that I may be grasping at straws trying to identify this propeller. I'm not able to have a picture at this time, but like I said if there is any way of knowing what type of decal this may be on there it might give me a start somewhere. Like I said yesterday, it is gold/yellow lettering with a black background and the three letters that are on there is-SHO-and I'm not completely sure of the order of the lettering, so it could be OSH. But any type of help would be wonderful. I've googled several sites and this one has seemed to help me more than the others. There are several pics that I have seen that look similar to this one, but the decals don't match. So if you could help I would greatly appreciate it, or if you could direct me to somewhere I might be able to start searching would be great. Thanks!!!

[Dave]

A long shot, but could it be "Shoninger"? Here's a decal from one.

[Tammy]

Thanks!!! That helps a lot. If you come across anymore information or know anyone I can contact please let know. Again thank you for all the help.

[Dave]

Tammy, if you can get a picture of the decals, it's easy to post them here as attachments. We might be able to recognize and match the original.

[Tammy]

These are the photos that I have. You can make out the numbering now on the center-N482-that is all we could see on it. I don't know if you can see the lettering, but it appears that the decal was oval in shape. I hope these can help. Thanks.

[MWP_Lamar]

The usual placement of decals is on the broad face of the blade, parallel to the axis so it can be read from the front of the plane. Since this decal is close to the hub and perpendicular to the axis I wonder if it didn't say something like "Re-certified by you friendly local prop SHOp"?

Lamar

[Dave]

I wondered the same thing.

Either way, I don't think what's there helps much with trying to identify it.

[Tammy]

Well, I wasn't sure if this was a replica or what. Is there anyway of researching by the numbers? If not thanks for the help anyway.

[Dave]

I doubt that it's a replica, and the imprint on the hub (from the attachment of a metal hub) makes it appear to have been used, rather than kept as a spare.

I don't know where else you can find anything to identify it. Unfortunately, some props just can't be identified.

[Aerobeacons]

Tammy, judging from the photos, it is very unlikely that your prop is a replica. It's design is similar to the wooden propellers produced for primary trainers during WWII. Although it's impossible to tell for sure based on your photos, the prop appears to closely resemble the design of the propellers used on the Fairchild PT-19/PT-23 series of trainers. Although these props are still fairly common, they do have value, usually fetching between $250 and $800 (depending heavily on condition) on auction sites like eBay.

[Tammy]

Thank you very much for all the help. I don't know a lot about these kind of things, so I really do appreciate the help. I guess now I know a little bit more about it, but I would still like to know more. I guess my question is what type of airplanes are the PT-19/Pt-23? I'm interested in know more about these propellers now that I've been researching and talking with ya'll about them. Or rather reading what all of ya'll have researched. So any information that ya'll can pass on would be great. I've kinda gotten hooked now reading up on all of this.

[MWP_Lamar]

Both PT-19 and PT-23 are Fairchild aircraft.

Lamar

[Aerobeacons]

I had a chance to measure a PT-19 prop today and it is nearly a foot shorter than yours. Also, although the blade design looks identical, the hub appears to be a bit thicker than yours. But most importantly, a prop produced for the military during WWII would have had more numbers and identifying marks stamped on or near the hub. So about all that can be said with much certainty is that yours is a real airplane propeller, most likely from the late 1930's or 1940's, and probably from a civilian airplane. However, without any additional identifying numbers or marks, that only narrows it down to a few hundred aircraft types! Still a nice piece of history.