Trying to confirm origins of a prop left to me by my Grandfather

[Cabbius]

1000005494.jpg 20240118_145545.jpg 1000005493.jpg

Good afternoon, now I've finally time to research the prop left to me by my Grandfather. It's a Gipsy Major prop 6 ft 5. With the following info on it.

Drg No. L.A.5963
Gipsy Major
LHT
D 6.5 P 5.0"

A.R.A 10599
10/41

Looking at the pt No Document I can't identify an exact match and the link to the Military Pt Nos link doesn't appear to work.
How my Grandfather acquired the prop I don't know. Anecdotally it is supposed to be off a DH90 Rapide this ties in with the Gipsy Major but he spent most of his service in South Africa maintaining AC training pilots and I can't find a connection with the Rapide. I can find reference to the DH86 Dominie at 64 Air School Bloemfontein which had the Gipsy 6 fitted the Gipsy 6 being a 6 cylinder version of the Gipsy Major so whether that was the way in which they idented the Gipsy 6 I can't be sure.

If anyone can help any info would be appreciated.

[Dbahnson]

It's amazing how many British propellers turn up yet are not listed on this list acquired from Bob Gardner.

[Cabbius]

Part numbers are a law to themselves. I've just retired after 40 years in RAF aircraft maintenance. Even now part numbers cause so many problems and that's with super computers trying to keep track of them.

[Mtskull]

I have a post-war (1952) list of design numbers which includes LA 596, which cross-references to DH5220. If you look at the list of British design numbers elsewhere on this site, you will see that variations of the design were used on a wide variety of aircraft; however my list is more specific in that it also lists diameter and pitch for every application; there is only one listed as D6.5/P5.0 and that is for the Auster lll.

*EDIT: Having now searched the internet using the terms “LA 596 propeller”, I found another listing for an LA 596 at D6.5/P5.0 for the DeHavilland DH 87 Hornet Moth; I also found this auction listing for an identical propeller from a Miles Magister: https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/269...november-1942/
All of the above mentioned aircraft are listed by Wikipedia as having been operated by the South African Air Force.

[Cabbius]

Mtskull, thankyou for that digging. You've found so much more out than I got. I'd searched for 5963 all the time. With this new info I can try so many more avenues. I do have a question that I'd wished I'd asked my Grandfather. "How did you persuade the RAF movers to bring back a prop as a souvenir?" I have problems getting them to transport legitimate spares let alone a gizzit.

[Mtskull]

It’s a pleasure. Incidentally and with respect, I do think you are barking up the wrong tree regarding a possible Rapide/Dominie connection; if the propeller had been intended for the Gipsy Six engine, it would have been stamped as such and not for the Gipsy Major.
That said, the DH90 (Dragonfly, not Rapide) did, as you correctly point out, use Gipsy Major engines and the type was definitely operated by the South African Air Force.
There may be a possible connection there; although I have so far been unable to find any evidence pointing to your design number being used in that application, it is by no means inconceivable that, due to the exigencies of wartime, the “wrong” propellers might have been unofficially fitted to an aircraft in order to keep it flying if the correct ones were unavailable. Stranger things have happened…