Looking for a book on Constant Speed Props and Engines for non-aviators

[Critical Reynolds No]

Hi all,

A mate of mine, who is a non-avaitor, wants to understand how constant speed props work. I tried to explain but got some baffling looks (maybe I explained wrong)! He is engineering minded so he would get it. Does anyone know of a good book that explains how these work?

Looking through my old texts, I don't have anything suitable.

Look forward and thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Cheers
CRN

[the wizard of auz]

Any AGK textbooks would have the information you seek, with diagrams, as it is aimed at people without aeronautical knowledge.
I have just had a look through some of my OLD books (Geez......I been flying longer than I thought :{ ) and all the Trevor Thom and Aviation theory texts have some quiet easy to understand sections on CSU.

[Critical Reynolds No]

Yes Dr we get that. Not worried about the suckin and a blowin. But things like why is an av engine only doing 2500rpm (approx). How does the constant speed mechanism work? Why do we adjust the throttle for Man pressure and not to increase RPM etc etc.

[Lasiorhinus]

Same as when you're driving up a hill in a manual car, wanting to maintain constant speed.

You need to push the accellerator pedal down, to increase the power of the engine, but you keep the RPM the same by keeping the roadspeed the same.

[Mr. Hat]

ATM CTM my eyes just glazed over and i couldn't for the life of me get into it accepting i'd get those questions wrong in the test

[Arm out the window]

Not real tricky to explain, I'd have thought - coarsen pitch to slow it down, fine to speed up, have a little whirling set of governor weights controlling a valve that ports oil in and out as required to move the blades in the appropriate direction.
Prop lever puts more or less pressure on a spring that opposes the force on the valve provided by the weights, so we can set what RPM we want.
Draw a little thumbnail-dipped-in-tar picture depicting the above and he should be right, I reckon.

[Arnold E]

That is a good simple explanation of how things work, anybody with any engineering understanding at all will get that.:ok: