Small Prop Identity Crisis

[Hangar6]

Greetings! Can anyone help me. I have a prop that I wish to identify. My suspision is that it may be from an UAV. Age is maybe 60 years +. The manufacturer is the Ritz Eng. Co. Chicago. It is 30 inches long with red tips.The hub is drilled to 1 1/4 " with four flange holes. The serial number 44D10908 is printed on the side of hub area. It appears to be maple, but not sure.
Thanks for any info you can give.
Jim

[Dave]

You are almost certainly correct in your assumption, but tracking it further as to a specific utilization might be very difficult.

[Hangar6]

Thanks Dave. Any way to find info on The Ritz Eng. Co.?
Jim

[MWP_Lamar]

I've never heard of it and Google yielded no useful results.

Lamar

[Hangar6]

Ritz Propeller 44D10908

Thanks for the reply. In my search I have found some interesting bits of info. but no real answers. I came across a photo of Marilyn Monroe posing with an identical looking propeller. There are several McCulloch engines in the background. Pic was before she became really famous. 40's. Also, found on the web some similiar propellers with the exact part # 44D10908. Only these were manufactured by Kroehler. This is interesting, maybe only to me . Is this the same Kroehler company as the infamous Kroehler Furniture Co. of the early 1900's, which among other things made army duffle bags during the war? It seems to make sense that if they made furniture they could make propellers.
Jim

[DEsser5]

Jim,
I don't have any information that will add to what you have found, but I do have one of these props. I'm in the process of closing up my parent's house and I came across the propeller in the basement. The tips are red and then there's a yellow stripe as well. The Ritz Eng Co. symbol is on each blade along with "Chicago" but there is no serial number. My father served in the Navy during WWII. He served on a Destroyer Escort that patrolled for submarines from Recife Brazil to Greenland. I asked him about the prop years ago and he said it was from a "drone" which is, I believe, an earlier name for UAV's. I Googled Ritz Eng Co and came up with this forum and a lot of hotels. I was thinking about sanding it down and refinishing it, but I see from looking around the forum that this would probably be a bad idea. Don't know what I'll do with it. In a way it is a piece of history and a piece of my Dad, but I don't want to just transfer it to my basement. Is there a museum for these kinds of things?
Dan

[Dave]

Is there a museum for these kinds of things?
Dan

Not really. Museums really don't seem interested in them, at least under any sort of conditional donation. I remember spending time years ago with the curator at the National Air and Space museum and at the time their policy was to not even accept them as donations unless they could be tied to a specific historical even or person. (That changed with a change of curators, though.)

A small propeller like that might be worth keeping for the family. They usually don't sell for more that $100 or so on eBay.