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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1305.PDF
DECEMBER 30, 1920 ALL-METAL AIRSCREWS --., - '" The Leitner-Watts Solution WHILE there IS certainly quite as great a practical need forall-metal airscrews as there is for all-metal aircraft, it is probably true to say that, although a great deal of researchand experimental work has been done on metal construction of aircraft, far less energy has been devoted to the solution quite serious enough, and in order to avoid adding to them by aero-dynamic considerations Dr. H. C. Watts was entrusted with the purely aerodynamic side of the design. The result of this collaboration is the present-day Leitner-Watts all- metal airscrew. Of the difficulties encountered there is no m A Leitner - Watts Propeller : The upper photo- graph shows the inside of a blade. Note the serrated edges at the root, which are tucked in b e tween two sleeves, and thus hold the blade against centri- fugal stresses. The photograph in the I centre shows a finished blade, and the lower illustra- tion shows the finished two- • bladed screw. of problems relating to the production of metal airscrews.If, in spite of this, the metal airscrew has reached as great a degree of development as has the metal aeroplane, this isdue not so much to the application of a number of firms to the problem as to the energetic development by a compara-tively few firms. Among these must be counted in the front need to speak here. It will be realised by all who understand the subject that they must have been, and were, many and great. In the main the obstacles have now, however, been surmounted, and the all-metal airscrew is a fait accompli, "although it can scarcely be claimed, nor do we think the designers make any such claim, to be perfect. It is, however, General arrange- ment and sec- tions of a Leitner- Watts metal air- screw blade. A A rr rank the Metal Airscrew Company, whose offices are situated at Regent House, Kingsway, W.C.2. :It is now a good many years since Mr. Leitner set himself the task of producing a really satisfactory solution of the all-metal airscrew problem. The structural difficulties were quite a practical proposition, and airscrews made by theMetal Airscrew Co., Ltd., have been thoroughly tested, in a tensile testing machine, by "spinning" at Farnborough,and last, but not least, in actual use on a Bristol seaplane. It may be stated that, broadly speaking, all but one of the 1307 D 2
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