Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-j7cmm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-09T23:08:43.957Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Automatic Variable Pitch Airscrew*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

H. C. H. Townend
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Some wind tunnel experiments have been made on a variable pitch airscrew which shall change its pitch automatically as V/nD changes. The change in pitch is operated by the resultant effect of centrifugal and aerodynamic forces.

Reduction in air density, e.g., due to increase in height, causes an increase in pitch.

In the event of engine failure the blades assume the position of minimum drag.

A tentative design for a model screw, together with tests thereon, are described, and it appears that if the friction in the bearings about which the change in pitch occurs can be made reasonably small, it should be possible to construct a satisfactory full-scale screw.

Information

Type
Aeronautical Research Committee
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 36 , Issue 254 , February 1932 , pp. 111 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1932

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This work was carried out at the National Physical Laboratory. Permission to communicate it was kindly given by the Aeronautical Research Committee.

References

Note on Page 111 † Les helices a pas Variable. G. Leparmentier. Premier Congres International de la Securete Aerienne. Paris, December, 1930.

Note on Page 113 * R. & M. 829. Experiments with a family of airscrews, including the effect of tractor and pusher bodies. Part I.—Fage, Lock, Howard and Bateman.

Note on Page 125 * loc. cit.