Propellers

[Mickc1440]

Just a quick one gents. I was just looking at the painting diagrams for my Dakota builds and it got me thinking about the yellow tips on propellers. Was this a safety feature added to help ground crews who would know the engine(s) were running but to clearly identify the extremities of the prop blades?

 

[Mark1]

 

[adt70hk]

I believe so..... Still didn't stop people walking into them sadly.

Have a book by a Fleet Airm pilot who learnt to fly in the US under their training scheme... Ended up flying Corsairs in the Pacific....IIRC he had just landed whilst on a training flight in the US.... His mate was walking around his own plane for reasons I can't recall and walked into the blades with the inevitable result.

 

[Jakko]

They are, yes. Not ever country did this, and not all that did, used yellow tips, nor did everyone apply a distinguishing colour to both sides of the blade. For example, Dutch military aircraft until 1940 had red/white/blue stripes at the propeller tips but on the front only, so you got a circular national flag when the propeller was spinning.

 

[KarlW]

The spirals on some spinners did the same thing.

 

[adt70hk]

The spirals on some spinners did the same thing.

That explains German aircraft then.... Have never seen one with coloured tips.... Not saying it never happened of course....but have seen lots of spirals on spinners.

Thanks Karl.

 

[KarlW]

That explains German aircraft then.... Have never seen one with coloured tips.... Not saying it never happened of course....but have seen lots of spirals on spinners.

Thanks Karl.

Slightly different method, but a visual aid to, "Is that twirling area of death on or off?"
I imagine while pretty easy to work out with a single aircraft a squadron scramble would be a noisy chaotic experience.

 

[Sunburst Finish]

Incidentally most of those yellow tips were four inches long, which equates to around two mil in 1/48.