Object Details
Manufacturer
American Propeller and Manufacturing Company
Designer
Spencer Heath
Physical Description
Type: Two-Blade, Fixed-Pitch, Wood
Diameter: 251.5 cm (99 in.)
Chord: 24.1 cm (9.5 in.)
Engine Application: Curtiss OX-5, V-8, liquid cooled, 67 kW (90 hp)
Summary
An early predominant manufacturer in the United States, Spencer Heath's American Propeller and Manufacturing Company was first to use machines for mass production of aircraft propellers, and, under the Paragon trademark, these were widely used in World War I. Construction was a wood laminate because of light weight, strength, fabrication ease, and resistance to fatigue in a vibrating and flexing environment.
Heath demonstrated the first "engine-powered, engine-controlled, variable and reversible pitch propeller" in 1919, but was unsuccessful in convincing the Army of the practicality of the concept. He sold the company to the Bendix Corporation in 1929 and retired from aeronautics two years later.
The artifact's shape indicates it is a Flexible Variable Pitch propeller. The manufacturer's brochure states: "These propellers are designed on the principle that the blade should constantly bend . . . accompanied by a torsional or twisting action by which the pitch would automatically change . . ."
Credit Line
Gift of American Propeller & Manufacturing Co.
Date
1914-1939
Inventory Number
A19300032000
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
PROPULSION-Propellers & Impellers
Materials
Wood
Varnish
Paint
Dimensions
Rotor/Propeller: 251.5 x 24.1 x 15.9 x 10.5cm (99 x 9 1/2 x 6 1/4 x 4 1/8 in.)
3-D: 251.5 x 22.4 x 10.8cm (99 x 8 13/16 x 4 1/4 in.)
Country of Origin
United States of America
See more items in
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Data Source
National Air and Space Museum
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nasm_A19300032000