Per the article in Air & Space, that airplane had a counterweighted prop
that cycled automatically between high and low pitch. They had trouble with
the pitch change mechanism during early flights, but made modifications that
supposedly corrected the problem. The first gear/second gear analogy
isn't exactly right, but isn't that far off the mark...


Supposedly Jim Wright himself made the comments about the "gears" so as
to convey the sense of the thing to the general public...

Sure was a stunning, stunning machine. Wish I'd taken the time to
realllly look at it...

Ed Wischmeyer