Boulton & Paul in conjunction with Howes & sons

[Gasqclark]

Dear all,

I recently purchased this single propeller blade and I have been spending hours trying to establish its origin.
Unfortunately, apart from the decal, there are no other markings. From the tip to the cut is 52’’ and 9’’ is the largest width.

My guess is that it’s from a 4 bladed prop and looking at the design, it’s a pusher. From various library pictures, I think it could have been on a RAF F.E.8 fighter aircraft. The RAF museum in Hendon London has an example of a F.E.2 with a Boulton & Paul propeller but the blades have a slightly different design.

Would love to hear from you.

[Dbahnson]

According to Bob Gardner, Boulton and Paul manufactured at least 7,835 propellers and he cites known examples for Fe2B, Fe2D, DH4, Be2C DH5, Snipe and Camel. The left hand thread suggests pusher which I think narrows it down to the Fe2 models only, and if it doesn't look like the Fe2 at the museum it was probably built for the other model. One is a Lang drawing and the other is from the RAF.

[Gasqclark]

Brillant, thank you Dave, didn’t realised there was 2 variants of the F.E.2 and I think the one displayed in Hendon is a B.

[Dbahnson]

Another reference I have lists two model numbers. One is LP982A (a Lang drawing) used on 160 HP Beardmore engine. It's 2700 mm in diameter

The other is an RAF drawing, T5638 which is the two-blade version so it's 2795 mm in diameter but it also only lists the 160 Beardmore. I suspect that the same propeller was used for both the 120 and 160 hp Beardmore engines, and as I look into a little further the D model used a Rolls Royce engine.

Bob's book also notes that several other propeller models were use on the Fe2, but he doesn't list them by drawing number.

In short, I think that you're left with a very high likelihood that yours came from an Fe2B, most likely using one of the Beardmore engine. Without a hub you would have great difficulty narrowing it down further.

[Gasqclark]

Thank you again Dave, that is certainly more informations than I had ever hoped for when I got it.