Belt Auction

Questions About World War II Fighters and Flight Characteristics .....?

This question popped up in my head after my niece broke one of the blades from a collectible Franklin Mint F6F Hellcat : http://www.flyingmule.com/img/prd/FM-B11E191_01_lrg.jpg : It was accidental but I still winced a little (I bought more than 20 different models at less than $10 - 20 apiece. The store in Las Vegas was closing and he gave them to me incredibly cheap!) Here's the question ... Suppose the enemy fighter starts poking holes in your fighter (any fighter ... it doesn't matter for this question) and a bullet knocks off a blade. The Hellcat has a 3 bladed propeller. If one blade is broken/missing ... can the plane still fly? Does it require at least most of the blade (say about 3/4 of the blade) for it to continue flying? (On my collectible the full blade broke off) If it cannot ... does this put the plane in a spin ... will it break up due to tremendous vibration of a shattered propeller? Thanks and thumbs up to all who answer! Just give me time to get back and read the answers.

Public Comments

1. When I learned to fly, I learned to do a walk-around to check out the airplane before taking off. Part of this was to run my fingers over the leading edge of both prop blades (2-bladed prop) to check for nicks. They sometimes get nicked by gravel or something. With the great amount of centrifugal force on the prop, these nicks can turn into cracks, and eventually part of one blade breaks off. When this happens, the imbalance can tear the engine right off its mountings and make the airplane disintegrate in in the air. Airplanes are actually pretty flimsy. A Hellcat would be even worse. The 3-bladed prop is so the prop can push even more air, transmit even more power. 13 ft. diameter prop! We're talking 2000 hp. 3500 ft per minute climb rate. 380 mph top speed! The whole airplane would blow apart. Of course it's very unlikely you could shoot off a prop blade.
2. A single or even several machine gun bullet hits are exceedingly unlikely to destroy a propeller blade. A cannon hit maybe but that would be a one-in-a-million shot. With one blade severed the prop assembly would be out of balance, resulting in an intense vibration. Yes, on a single engined aircraft it would bring the plane down.
3. those props are highly and perfectly balanced, loss or damage to one would be disastrous