Video
Making Wooden Airscrews (Propellors) - 4 Minutes
Study Making Wooden Airscrews (Propellors) - 4 Minutes, a Dr. Alex Clarke video from 5 Oct 2020, with 6 time notes. Topics include Aircraft Construction, Blackburn Shark, Naval Aviation.
Time notes
- 0:09Three ways to build a wooden airscrewChapter
The opening distinguishes three wooden airscrew construction methods being produced by 1944 and traces them to techniques developed in the 1920s.
- 0:45Compressing birch veneer into a dense propeller rootNotable Point
Treated birch veneer is pressed and then compressed sideways at the root, producing a dense root joined to a lighter blade and tip.
- 1:40Finishing an airscrew with varnish and a brass leading edgeNotable Point
The carved blade receives primer and varnish, a mechanically fastened brass leading edge, and about fourteen further coats to complete its finish.
- 1:57Laminating and shaping the Jablo bladeNotable Point
The Jablo example uses many thin veneer layers, heat and pressure, then machine and hand shaping to produce a propeller blank.
- 2:44Why wood remained useful at seaChapter
Wooden propellers remained important through the interwar years and Second World War, with reliability and resistance to internal corrosion among their advantages at sea and on land.
- 3:21The Blackburn Shark and the M.1/30 requirementNotable Point
A Blackburn Shark image closes the video by linking its lineage to the M.1/30 project and the same Fleet Air Arm mission sought by the Swordfish.