PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Is the prop's relative wind same as the wing's relative wind?
Old 15th June 2008 | 17:45
  #8 (permalink)  
barit1
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,581
Likes: 0
From: flyover country USA
barit1, in propellor 101 it is advanced that the most efficient propellor is one with a single Blade, (Obviously counterweighted) do you remember why?
It's because there's no wake interference between blades (for the same reason a biplane or triplane is aerodynamically less efficient than a monoplane)

Incidentally I've seen a photo of an experimental single-blade prop on a prewar light plane - a Cessna Airmaster I believe. The problem I believe is that it would need to be larger diameter, and thus turn lower RPM, to match the thrust of a multiblade prop.
barit1 is offline  
Reply