Sea Recovery Prop

If it is off a B-17 or for that matter B-24, C-47 etc – the prop is a Hamilton Standard 23E50 “Hydromatic” prop. The DH part number for the identical prop was 23EX; the primary difference was in the splines on the prop shaft. Lancasters, Mosquitoes and Beaufighters were fitted with the DH licence built version.

Incidentally, “Hydromatic” was a Ham Std patented name.

The de-icer ring appears to be in place along with the brackets at the foot of each blade bolted to the hub.

B17

There were many hundreds of B-17’s that went down over Germany so pinning this one down would be almost impossible – unless there was an accurate eye-witness account of the incident.

Hamburg could be possible, though a crippled aircraft could fly a long way heading for the sea to ditch for the crew to try and paddle home.

Anon.

Thanks Mike and Alan the info I received was:

Recovered from the North Sea off Büsum Germany.

A B17 raid on Hamburg??

Engine/prop i/d

(Wright) Cyclone reduction gear with Ham-Stan prop with paddle blades = B-17.

The only other engine/airframe to use this prop was B-24 Lib (with P&W R-1830 engine) and C-47/DC-3 (with P&W R-1830 also).

Larger paddle blades (or “butter pat blades” as they sometimes referred to them in the US) were on P&W R-2800’s, which had Farman bevel epicyclic gears, not the planetary type as in the pic.

North Sea sounds like the right location for a B-17 engine too. Looks like it was windmilling or stationary when it hit the sea so almost certainly a war casualty.

Anon.

Which bit of sea did it come from, if it was local to you I’d be going for a Hudson.

Thank you Chaps.

Yup Hamilton Standard and formerly bolted to a Wright Cyclone.

What the Cyclone was attached to; I can’t say.

It appears to be a Hamilton Standard propeller. Though I could be wrong.

It has the look of a Hamilton prop, not overly different to some DH props though, but propellers isn’t a subject I know too much about.