The arrival on the aeronautical scene of a new generation of propeller driven commercial aircraft, and the great interest in the propeller as an economical means of propulsion for high subsonic Mach numbers, makes this an appropriate time to look back and attempt to identify some of the evolutionary paths by which the present state of development has been reached.

A consideration of the history of the propeller may be confined to the period beginning around the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, when the propeller was clearly recognisable as such and becoming established. However, the idea goes back many centuries before this and there is a wealth of references describing, not always very precisely, various mechanical devices intended or actually used for ship propulsion which may be considered remote but legitimate ancestors of the present day propeller. Before considering more recent developments, it is worth looking at the beginnings of mechanical propulsion if only to pay tribute to those early engineers who did not allow the lack of suitable materials or theory to inhibit their attempts.