Sandisondaughter,
Thank you for your interesting post, it's wonderful to hear this info (particularly the incident of the German scientists) direct from the horse's mouth as the horses are sadly dwindling in number. I'm sure all pPruners will want to send their good wishes to your father, and make a plea: "More, please!"
Danny, ( at a quarter to five this morning)
The Master never sleeps and his eagle eye misses naught! Of course it was a constant speed prop
I seem to recall that early Oxfords had fixed pitch wooden props, but had a pitch control knob which had to be moved into 'fine pitch' for takeoff and landing. The control didn't do anything except to embed 'pitch' as a vital item of cockpit drill.