Frankie wrote:

...not familiar with this example. Perhaps you could fill us in.

Early P-47s had a fairly typical military prop when they first came out. The
planes were heavy for a single (over 7 tons). They had pretty good high altitude
performance, unbeatable dive characteristics, could take immense amounts of
punishment, but they didn't maneuver well (compared to planes like the Spitfire)
and they guzzled gas. Later in the war, the Thunderbolt was re-equipped with a
prop which had comparatively wide blades -- the pilots called it a
"paddle-blade" prop. Rate-of-climb and maneuverability immediately improved to
the point that a good Jug pilot could out-maneuver a Spitfire. Fuel consumption
also improved a bit. The prop simply made better use of the engine's power.

Not sure this is applicable to the Mooney. I suspect that the short legs on the
Mooney make a short prop necessary, so a paddle blade gets the best results.

Don't forget that a prop is essentially a rotating wing. Increase the width of a
wing and you will increase lift (at the expense of increased drag). When the
wing is your prop, that increased "lift" translates to increased thrust. With
the P-47, the plane had the power to make the increased drag unimportant.

George Patterson
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