Someone will know!!!

[kiwiduster]

Recently i was given a cross-section of a wooden prop which has been a wall hanging for many years. On the back is written:PART OF AN AIRCRAFT PROPELLOR THAT FLEW 27 TIMES TO THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS DURING THE WAR. Assuming this was a military aircraft what type could it have been??? Cheers.

[davidd]

So far as I am aware, no RNZAF aircraft with wooden propellers ever actually flew to the Pacific islands in WW2 either from or to NZ. Only ones which flew within the Pacific islands were the eight Vincents and one Vildebeest (NZ119) shipped to Fiji in latter part of 1941 to serve with Unit 20/4 Squadron, and the four Singapore III flying boats based at Suva and Lauthala Bay 1941/43 (which were ferried out from Singapore late 1941), also the odd DH 60 Moth in Fiji (NZ522 and one other, the number of which escapes me at the moment.) So far as I can recall, all the DH89 Rapides and DH86s flew in Fiji with Fairey-Reed metal props, and the odd DH89 Dominie up there later in the war and postwar certainly had metal props. So you have me stumped.
David D

[nuuumannn]

Can you post a photograph?

[kiwiduster]

Here you go nuuumannn,

[scrooge]

Which war? (yes I understand the assumption of the date).

[baronbeeza]

Something in the earlier wars may have spent 27 times trying to get to the South Island, let alone anywhere the South Pacific.
Well it would have been newsworthy if it had got to Fiji or similar just the once, let alone any number of times.


Why would an aircraft want to fly to and fro the 27 times ?

Normally an aircraft would position and then carry out tasking until it crashed.

This number of flights is almost a years worth of dedicated tasking.

No mention of it being a military aircraft, were any civil ones taken over ? Seaplanes or similar ?

[Dave Homewood]

Hmm, quite a puzzle. The date on the message is 1947, there won't have been much left of the Singapores and Vincents/Vildebest in Fiji by then.

I have to wonder if it was not off a foreign aircraft, maybe a US airliner or RAAF aircraft or something? It doesn't specifically state it's of NZ origin.

[Dave Homewood]

Did the RNZAF Mk III Sunderlands have wooden props by any chance?

[davidd]

Dave H,
The RNZAF Mk. III Sunderlands originally had DH counterweight type propellers, later converted to have DH-assembled Hamilton Standard Hydromatics, both types all metal. Wonder if it could refer to a prop off the Supermarine Channel flying boat which was shipped to Fiji in about 1920 (NZ Flying School, pilot Upham I think?) for survey work, did quite a bit of flying around Fiji before being shipped back home, could have damaged a prop whilst on this expedition? Presented by the Gunn family many years later perhaps? Of course there must have been other aircraft in Fiji from the mid/late 1930s (after Kingsford Smith's visit in 1928 on his Trans-Pacific epic), but not that many aircraft would have gone through under their own steam, perhaps next would have been the survey flights by the big commercial flying boats from IAL and PAA? I cannot for the life of me think what other larger aircraft with wooden props would be flying round in WW2 on long oversea flights, thus my suggestion of a much earlier flight just after the "Great War" - often stories get somewhat mutilated with numerous retellings, and "just after the war" can be truncated to "the war" (meaning the great war) to explain this one away.
David D

[currawong]

Read it another way.

Perhaps it flew to the Pacific Islands 27 times. In its current state. Paper weight on a nav table or a door stop perhaps.

[The Red Baron]

Is it actually an aircraft propellor?,a wooden propellor is made of many sheets of timber layed on top of each other and glued together like a sandwich.The join lines should run horizontally along the length of the blade,not near vertically as the one in the photo.
It doesnt look strong enough for a propellor blade,may be its a fairing or something?.
I could be wrong too.

[Bruce]

I think the laminates on the blade are in the correct direction RB, remember that the blade is at a high angle of attack, so the joints run steeply diagonal, as they appear to do here.

[craig]

Don't some aircraft (like Dominie) have a small windmilling prop which I assume was to drive some form of equipment (generator perhaps)?

[The Red Baron]

Charles Gunn of Hastings was the pilot of Vildebeest NZ122 that went missing over the Tasman.I wonder if that might be the connection?.

[shamus]

No, not possible with Vildebeest NZ122 if thats what your suggesting. This aircraft was a Mark 4 and had a Rotol metal prop.

[The Red Baron]

No,obviously NZ122 was never recovered,I was just wondering there must be some reason the Gunns of Hastings had the piece of propellor,and as Charles Gunn pilot of NZ122 was from a reconnaisance squadron and from Hastings,you'd presume there is some tie up?.
Unless there isnt,and I'm barking up the wrong tree.

[shamus]

I am wondering if the wording is wrong and is meant to say 'in' the Pacific Islands.

[Dave Homewood]

Red Baron, you may be barking up a right tree. Charles Gunn's father was William Gunn and that fits the address. That prop piece may have been souvinered by Charles long before he died. It is a fact that whenever a Vildebeest, Vincent or Baffin broke a prop, and it did happen on regular occasions, there was a mad ruch by the ground staff to grab all the bits to make into souviners. Their props were the largest wooden props used and were highly desirable as paperweights, etc. He may have picked it up after an accident and had it as his own paperweight, and after he died it could have been sent on to Gunn's parents. Maybe it was off an aircraft he was flying in himself.

This is an interesting mystery.

[scrooge]

This line of thought seems more likely.

[scrooge]

Yes Craig, some aircraft do have small propellor driven generators, but the chord (front edge to back edge) is generally 2-5cm, not the 27cm you can see here.