Heine propellor

[chris.griffiths]

I purchaged a 313cm propellor from an auction in Australia when the contents of the Naval and Military Club of Melbourne were liquidated.

This propellor had hung above the main bar from WW1 until 2009. I often admired it when I visited the club from Sydney.

The markings on the propellor are as follows:

260 PS
MAY B
D 313
H 220
Heine (impressed)
A N 28846
EDUL ZUG
Any ideas to engine/ aircraft type ?

[Bob Gardner]

Good Evening Chris,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on buying such an excellent prop.

The 260ps Maybach engine (ps indicates Pferdestarke which tr. as horsepower. German hp was fractionally different from British hp by about 1.5%) was used on the;
Rumpler C IV with a diameter of 3170mm,
Rumpler C VII, diameter nk
Rumpler C IX, diameter nk
Gotha G VII, diameter 3100

The pitch on the Gotha props was around 1800 to 1950mm. The Gotha was a heavy bomber. The pitch on your prop is 2200mm which suggests a lighter aircraft.

The Rumpler C IV was a superb recce machine with a first class rate of climb and speed at high altitude and was used for long range recce where it was almost invulnerable to attack.

The Rumpler C VII used the super-compressed Maybach 260ps engine and could reach 24,000ft. It had oxygen for the crew, heated suits and carried a cine-camera as well as a conventional PR camera. As it flew above the ceiling of all allied fighters it was immune to interception and could fly wherever it chose, unhindered. The SR71 Blackbird of its era.

I think your prop is from one of these two Rumplers, possibly the C VII.

There are one or two other German props in Australia that came from German aircraft donated by GB to the fledgling RAAF at the end of WW1. You might wish to do some research to see if a Rumpler was amongst them. The air force museum at Point Cook might know. Incidentally the Pfalz company built the Rumpler C IV as the Pfalz C I.

Please send me a careful hi-res photo of the prop and the data stamped on it that I might use in my next book on German WW1 props, if you would agree to such a thing. My address is aeroclocks at btinternet dot com, written in this phonetic form to evade the spam bots.

With kind regards,

Bob

[Bob Gardner]

Postscript;

The data on your prop translates as follows;

260 PS 260hp engine
MAY B Maybach, the engine maker
D 313 Diameter in cm
H 220 Pitch in cm
Heine (impressed) Propeller maker, Heine of Berlin
A N 28846 Heine serial number, indicating 1917
EDUL ZUG EDUL indicates that the prop rotates anti-clockwise; ZUG indicates a tractor prop

Bob