BBMF Lanc Engine Change

[Garry Russell]

TBH I'm not sure what they use but the irony of having to go to Germany yet again struck me

Whatever next..Me.109's and Heinkel 111's with Merlins :think: :doho:

Or would that be asking for the Spanish Inquisition

Garry

[DaveB]

NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION

Point is, those German chaps really do love their prop aircraft and I guess they have a market big enough over there to sustain an industry for the supply of such parts. You know what we're like over here.. the slightest sign of trouble and bail out! Try sourcing a wooden prop from a UK company (if one exists) and you'll probably find a sticker on it saying 'Made in India' or 'Made in China' :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

Indeed mate

As if the countires lost heart. :-(

It's just as well the Germans can supply

Garry

[hobby]

That Lanc had better return to the UK tomorrow (Thursday) because there is a severe weather warning out for the whole of East Anglia for Friday. Years ago I was told that PA474 is not allowed to fly through heavy rain to avoid damage to its propellers. Of course the Lanc may have to stay where it is until better weather arrives over the BofB Flight base.

[Garry Russell]

Hi Hobby

We have had local cancellations due to the rain ban which is on the whole BBMF.....chips the props, or so they said.

I can't see it does much damage but perhaps it shortens the service life and repeated flying in such conditions could add up to something.

Just trying to eek out every remaining minuet of life any way they can.

Garry

[Archer]

The higher density of a raindrop compared to a similar volume of air has an erosive effect on propblades, even metal ones. I know the Canadian Lanc uses metal props as it was recently grounded for corrosion in the prop blades. That usually doesn't happen to wooden props. As I said previously the Spitfire/Hurricane society uses wooden props a lot but somehow I think the Lancs all use(d) metal props. I cannot recall where I got that from though.

One of the reasons that the Germans have a thriving wooden prop industry is their fondness for gliding. Lots of gliders use additional engines for self-starting or to get home and you don't want a heavy metal prop on that. An interesting sidenote: the Rutan Voyager had wooden German props installed at first but they gave problems, at one point culminating in a prop blade departing the aircraft. After that they switched to good old metal (American) props. Disclaimer: I have no idea if this is the same company that manufactures Spitfire blades! (And even then, I'm sure they learned from it.)

[SkippyBing]

I believe an advantage of wooden props is there's less damage to the engine in the event of a prop strike. There was definitely a problem when the Firefly changed to metal props in WW2, Rolls-Royce hadn't been changing the con rods in the Merlins they'd been refurbishing post deck landing incidents, which was fine, until the metal blades came along and then the failure rate on the rebuilds sky rocketed.
I'm guessing if you're running your own warbird that's a consideration, while the Lancaster wouldn't have that problem.

[cstorey]

What skippy bing says about there being less shock loading with a wooden prop is spot-on. However, I do not believe that any aircraft with constant speed propellers has ever had wooden blades. CS props have to be splined to the hub to permit reliable axial rotation of the blades. The wooden propped Spit and Hurricane were the very early versions with fixed pitch props I believe,and I am quite sure that none of the heavy bombers ever had wooden props

[Archer]

I'm sure this is wood though ;-)

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled ... 1352635/L/