Warbird Information Exchange

Hi

I'm wondering if you guys can help?

I'm wondering what aircraft share the same props? Do Allison powered aircraft all use the same type of prop? what about the big P&W powered birds do they use the same type? are the same props basically interchangeable between types?

If anyone has or knows of a list that mentions ac type and prop type that would be great.

Thanks

Ben

I may be wrong, but I thought the P-40 and P-38 shared one propellor.

greg v

I don't know about the Curtiss electrics, but the big Hams Standards used the same hub, but different blades, ie the C-47, B-17,B-24, B-25, all used the same hub, but all had different blades.

Well they may well share one prop the same but since the P-38 has counter rotating props so one of them is definitely different.

Ryan

And unless that P-40 can feather its prop????

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The blades for the 38 are also longer.About the only similarities is the badge on the blades that says curtiss.

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I know the blades for our C-60 were the only plane these blades were used on. But the hubs are the same as used on the C-47, B-25?, and several others.

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Larger American aircraft used standard SAE splined output shafts. Each aircraft is designed to have a specific unique setup, but a lot of the compoments are interchangeable. A Merlin powered P-51 could use either a Hamilton Standard or an Aeroproducts 50 spline prop depending on model for instance.

A Hamilton Standard 12D40 prop is used on a T-6. It features a 2 bladed 40 spline hub using D-series shanked blades. The number 1 indicates a major change was made to the 2D40 design.

The T-6 uses 6101A-XX blades where the XX represents how many inches in diameter were removed from the full length blade blanks. A T-6 is certified by the FAA to use -12 through -14 blades, but I believe that the US military used as small as -20 blades in service. A BT-13 used a 2D30 prop which was a two-bladed 30 spline prop but used the exact same blade shank design so blades (but obviously not the hub) from a T-6 can be used as long as they meet the length requirements approved by the FAA on the Type Certificate Data Sheet for the BT-13.

Clear enough?

Merlin P-51 used 24D50
T-28 (with R-1820) used 43D50
B-17/B-24 used 23E50
R-4360-63A used a 70 spline hub while the R-4360-59 used a 60 spline hub
Earlier versions of the R-2800 used 50 spline hubs while the later versions used 60 spline hubs

3 prop manufacturers commonly seen on warbirds:

Hamilton Standard
Curtiss Electric
Aeroproducts

Good info.

Thanks for posting that, bdk!

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If you look up the Type Certificate Data sheets for any civil or civilianized military airplane on the FAA web site you can find all of the approved propellers for each airplane that is certified. Some will have 10 or 20 different propellers that are listed.

True enough! Have a search here for more specific type info:

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... enFrameSet

F'rinstance:

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... ight=p-51d

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... hlight=sbd

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... ight=a-26c

http://www.airweb.faa.gov/Regulatory_an ... ight=lb-30

Thanks bdk and others.

I know there are many sub types but so many aircraft used the P&W 2800 engine yet they all seem to use a differant prop would it have not maded more economic sense for them all to share the same prop or am i looking at it with rose tinted glasses. does the type of airframe make that much differance? could you, in theory take the engine & prop off a hellcat and pop it on a P47 (for example)

Thanks again

Ben

Each prop installation is optimized for the aircraft in question. A Hellcat needed to be launched off of a carrier so low speed handling was important. The P-47 was designed as a high altitude high speed aircraft. Seaplanes typically were designed for maximum endurace at low speed and low altitude. Different variants of the R-2800 had different power ratings. There were issues of prop to ground clearance on some aircraft as well that limited diameter. During flight testing, blade design and number of blades were optimised for performance and to prevent vibration (different airframes react differently). Also, there were't many 4-bladed props in use at the beginning of the war. As the war progressed and the manufacturing base improved, we could probably afford the extra blades needed for improved performance. Some aircraft like the Corsair went from three bladed to four bladed props as the power increased due to design improvements.

So a Hellcat prop on a P-47 might have worked, but if my behind was in it I sure would have appreciated having a prop better matched to the airframe.