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  • 128" prop

    I just found this forum as I was mulling the idea of selling a big old prop I have but have not been able to ID. Here is the story....
    About 20 years ago I saw it in the rafters of a garage at a rummage sale. The old WW2 vet would not sell it. a few years later he had another sale, this time because he was terminally ill and I was able to buy the prop. All he told me is it was an old military prop. It was painted a greenish grey color and sadly at the time I did not know better and sanded it off and buffed the metal edges to a luster. The edges are brass with copper rivets. The wood looks to be Oak. It is 128" long, and a RH rotation according to the stamping. at the time, I called the Smithsonian and the air and space museum and had no luck getting an idea of what it came off of. They guessed a WW1 bomber (but it was too big) or an airship. The fact it was painted instead of varnished or shellacked is unusual.
    Any help would be great.
    Attached Files

  • #2
    It probably can't be identified based on that information alone. It does have an "SC" number which indicates that it was used by the Signal Corps. I'm just guessing that the fairly high number relates to its manufacture in the twenties, not during WW1, but it could still have been made for use on some WW1 aircraft. There were hundreds of different propeller models manufactured even then, so narrowing it down to one type is nearly impossible without definitive stampings linking it to an aircraft type.

    You might be able to narrow down the engine possibilities using this method. (Be sure to determine the bolt hole circle from the centers of the bolt holes.)

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    • #3
      Thanks for the info so far. I did a little google searching on the Signal Corps and could not find much on aircraft they may have used. Any idea if they used blimps? Even if they did, I am not sure why they would paint the prop a camo color, not like a blimp is going to hide....

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      • #4
        I don't know about the Signal Corps and airships, but there are a bunch of airship propellers in storage at the Air and Space Museum and many of those are painted gray, but most of them are closer to 20 feet in length. Some of the smaller propellers were also gray, however, so I'm not sure the paint really tells you anything about its use.

        Did you check the hub dimensions?

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Dbahnson View Post
          I don't know about the Signal Corps and airships, but there are a bunch of airship propellers in storage at the Air and Space Museum and many of those are painted gray, but most of them are closer to 20 feet in length. Some of the smaller propellers were also gray, however, so I'm not sure the paint really tells you anything about its use.

          Did you check the hub dimensions?
          4" bore, 8" thick from face to face. 9" bolt to bolt across. nothing in that chart comes close to this size.

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