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Catalog Data

Manufacturer:
American Propeller and Manufacturing Company  Search this
Materials:
Overall: Wood
Dimensions:
Rotor/Propeller: 182.9 x 28.6 x 15.2 x 1.1 x 0.5cm (72 x 11 1/4 x 6 x 7/16 x 3/16 in.)
Type:
PROPULSION-Propellers & Impellers
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Date:
1911
Physical Description:
Type: Two-Blade, Fixed-Pitch, Wood
Diameter: 182.9 cm (72 in.)
Chord: 28.6 cm (11.25 in.)
Engine Application: Unknown
Summary:
An early predominant manufacturer in the United States, Spencer Heath's American Propeller and Manufacturing Company opened in Baltimore in 1909. Heath was first to use machines for mass production of aircraft propellers and, under the Paragon trademark, these were widely used in World War I. Like most propellers of that era, 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.
Credit Line:
Gift of Alden Hydraulic Laboratory, Worchester Polytechnic Institute
Inventory Number:
A19300067000
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
See more items in:
National Air and Space Museum Collection
Location:
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
Exhibition:
Early Flight
Data Source:
National Air and Space Museum
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv976b15d60-e9aa-4a6a-bf41-0b0b7cce0f46
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nasm_A19300067000