War time blade production

Hi Anneorac,
thanks for the prompt reply, sounds to me you can almost smell a new prop coming ?

Here’s his list of his work during the war, also a sample of the full record of a few prop blades that he recorded. I’m gradually going through his notebook and transferring it to hard disc but its a pig to type out. All of it is in fading pencil, and sometimes a bit hard to discern. I suspect he really recorded it in order to keep track of his earnings, but he did seem to be sometimes working 12 hour days and once a 15 hour work time, day and night shifts. WOW ! We forget what they had to put up with during the war.

I also have three attachments scanned of pictures from pages from ‘Illustrated’ Magazine dated September 1st 1944 taken of workers shaping and assembling props at ‘a’ factory.(secrecy then prevailed) Interested? or do you already have them ? Many thanks for your help.
VB

R A Robberts Record of Propeller Blades Shaped Between September 1st 1942 and December 19th 1944 at High Wycombe ?

Blade Aircraft Work Work Blades
Type Started Finished Completed

531 ? Sept ’42 May ’44 144

1140 Halifax ? Sept ’42 Oct ’42 25

739 Wellington ? Dec ’42 Dec ’44 381

230 ? Oct ’43 Apr ’44 9

291 ? Dec ’43 Dec ’43 1

902 ? Apr ’44 Dec ’44 48

940 ? May ’44 Dec ’44 147

220 ? Sept ’44 Dec ’44 1

Total 756
From September 1st 1942
531 blade 1550/47 +175 RS40 LE45
531 154434 +100 RS30 LE35
531 154972 +240 RS40 LE40
1140 151794 -540
1140 151848 -225 PS4 TE9
1140 151831 -345 PS6 LE9
1140 151626 -230 RS3 LE2
1140 152068 -680 RS5 LE10
1140 152520 -40 PS4 LE9
1140 152532 -115 RS3 LE12
1140 152098 -225 RS8 LE6
160965}
160879} not finished
1140 152499 +285 PS15 LE2 Weds 16th
531 155144 +50 RS34 LE42 Thurs 17th
531 155037 -120 RS42 LE48
531 154578 +125 RS32 LE44 Mon night 20th September
1140 151895 -75 PS7 LE10
531 155678 -150 RS38 LE48
1140 161225 +540 RS4 TE16 *
1140 152412 +40 PS8 TE6 Mon
(it goes on and on and on ….)VB

Anneorac
Different question. Can you help me:

I have a propellor un-finished in scored but varnished wood and never having been fitted with metal leading edge sheathing.
It bears the numbers “Cirrus MinorII” (I know what that is!) and “Drg No: FP:400/1C:1” and “PP.253997”

Can you or anyone tell me anything about it please. It appears not to have been finished but why would the boss have been stamped with numbers if it was still awaiting sheathing and finishing? Any ideas?

Hang about…maybe I should Look at my original post.

DS940 Barracuda & Defiant II

Well the same goes for DA940, same blade jst a different covering.

Anne

£195 sounds a bit steep for a broken bit of Rotol blade…hope they liked it.

If it’s on ebay…it must be from a Spitfire! It’s the Law.

Very few Weybridge blades made their way onto Spitfires so, although not impossible, it is unlikely.

Unfortunately I’m forced to be away from my prop list today but I’ll have a look tomorrow.

Anne

Very interesting stuff.

And good to know we have a resident prop expert on the forum! 🙂

I read with interest the info anneorac provided on the Weybridge props.

Somebody on WIX was asking a while back about a prop for sale on eBay in which the seller claimed it was a “Fixed Pitch Wooden Propeller Blade from a Spitfire MKI”.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200300846361&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:Watchlink:middle:uk#ebayphotohosting

Whilst I’m no expert on props, I told him it was not a fixed pitch blade from a Spitfire, but a Rotol blade used on a variable pitch propeller unit, and told him I thought it might be from a Hurricane.

I note that the number on it in one of the pictures posted by the seller is DA940, but this number doesn’t appear in your list. So, I was wondering if anneorac would be kind enough to identify what it was from please.

Cheers

Paul

Ooh…did someone mention prop blades?

Your father in law appears to have been involved in the production of Weybridge blades for Rotol propellers. The drawing numbers of early Weybridge blades used a different prefix to other types of Rotol blades. Most Rotol blades had a drawing number starting with the prefix RA and ending with a suffix which would tell you the type of covering used. In Weybridge blades it’s the prefix that tells you about the covering, which will be why he has only noted the number of the blades he produced as they could have had a number of coverings applied.

So what are they?

Your IDs for 739 and 1140 are correct. As for the rest…

D?220 No idea!
DR230 Master I
DA291 Hurricane I, II, IV
DR291 Hurricane I, II, IV
DR531 Hurricane I, II, IV & Fulmar
DR902 Oxford
DS940 Barracuda & Defiant II

Sorry, no Mosquitos as only a few variants used Rotol props (mostly Sea Mosquitos) and deHavilland and Hamilton Standard props were the norm.

Hope this helps.

Anne

Welcome to the forum Ventourbob, just so you know: Anneorac is a resident prop expert 🙂

Enter ‘Anneorac’…….