NASA NASA-TM-81745
NASA NASA-TM-81745 1981-JAN-01 Low and hgh speed propellers for general avaton - Performance potental and recent wnd tunnel test results
NASA NASA-TM-81745 1981-JAN-01 Low and hgh speed propellers for general avaton - Performance potental and recent wnd tunnel test results
The performance of lower speed, 5 foot diameter model general aviation propellers, was tested in the Lewis wind tunnel. Performance was evaluated for various levels of airfoil technology and activity factor. The difference was associated with inadequate modeling of blade and spinner losses for propellers round shank blade designs. Suggested concepts for improvement are: (1) advanced blade shapes (airfoils and sweep); (2) tip devices (proplets); (3) integrated propeller/nacelles; and (4) composites. Several advanced aerodynamic concepts were evaluated in the Lewis wind tunnel. Results show that high propeller performance can be obtained to at least Mach 0.8.