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This program will calculate the performance of two-, three-, and four-bladed model aircraft propellers.  The calculation is based on correlations of actual propeller data taken by the NACA in the late 1930's (Reference: NACA Technical Note 698).

Model airplane propeller data is not readily available and most of data that is published is of static thrust measurements only.  Actual propeller thrust is a strong function of air speed, a fact that is not really emphasized in many of the articles published in the model airplane magazines.  At least one of the popular electric aircraft analysis programs does its performance calculations using a static thrust correlation.  Needless to say, the performance estimates produced by this program are not very accurate.

The propellers used in producing the data in the above referenced NACA report were similar in design to those used today on model aircraft.  In particular, the pitch angles used during the tests cover the range of pitch angles of interest to R/C aircraft modelers.

Last modified March 20, 2002
©1999-2001  Brian R. Gyles