What Aircraft Propellor?

Thank you again Anne.

The propellor has been in my family since my father and I recovered it from a dump in 1963. It was repainted then in the paint shop where my farther worked. The brass strip was revealed at that time, being previously covered in paint. We always wondered if it was a Spitfire propellor, but until your invaluable information we never knew its origin.

Richard

If the diameter is correct there is only one blade it could be which is RA10046. These were used on a number of props fitted to Spitfire Mks. VII, VIII, XI & XVI as well as the Seafire MK. III (also retro fitted to some earlier marks).

Very nice!

Anne

Thankyou all for your information, especially Anne.

I have found a no. on the wooden [ATTACH]189043[/ATTACH]base and it corresponds to one of the numbers on the boss: 200237. The rust has eaten into the metal coating and destroyed the metal surface. I doubt if cleaning the rust will reveal the lost dwg no.

I also realised under closer examination one of the hand engraved nos reads Dia 10′ 9″ which must be the overall dia of the 4 blades when fitted. The actual height of mine from base to tip is 5′.

I have attached a photo, or rather being new to this forum I hope I have!!

Anne,

That’s superb. Thanks for that!

RA25917-14 = Argosy. You struck lucky there. I don’t have many drawing numbers from that era.

Anne

Sorry to hijack the thread, but what would blades with the drawing number RA25917-14 be from?

If you would like to contact me directly, I have a gel that will remove the rust without removing any metal, environmentally friendly solution that was discussed at the Stopping the rot conference on Saturday.

John Terry

Well you appear to have a blade made by Jablo Propellers for a Rotol Prop. Sadly the drawing number (RA100…) is missing the last two digits so we are left with about 100 different types of blade this could be. This ranges from RA10001 (Beaufighter) to RA10099 (Griffon Spitfire). The good news is that you do have the adaptor ring drawing number RA9918 which would suggest that you have a blade for a Merlin engined, four bladed Spitfire or Seafire as not many other aircraft used that adaptor. Have a look at the wood at the root end which is the bit coloured red in the photo. Sometimes the drawing number is carved into the base there.

Anne

So a single wooden blade then.

ROTOL propellers were a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Bristol so it is almost certainly off a British aircraft. They were fitted to a huge variety of aircraft; hopefully one of the forum members here will be able to identify it from the numbers that you have supplied.

One wooden propellor

RA part numbers would make it ROTOL I think.

What have you got, a single blade, a hub and blades (how many), is it wooden or metal?

Any photographs?