COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER
WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box
100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK
E-MAIL TO: aeroplane@keypublishing.com, putting ‘Q&A’ in the header
THIS MONTH’S QUESTIONS
Scimitar props
Q This may have been a regular query over the years, but can anyone say why some propeller blades were given the curved scything shape seen in the above photograph? What advantage or disadvantage was there in using this design and who first proposed and experimented with the shape? Auster J/2 Arrow OO-ABR is known to have been so fitted; in the accompanying image it appears to be pictured at Lydd in the late 1950s.
Buddy’s Bonanza
Q One of the great rock and roll artists, Buddy Holly, died in an air crash on 3 February 1959 at Clear Lake, Iowa. Also killed was the pilot, 21-year-old Roger Peterson, and artists Richie Valens and J. P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson. Geoff Dobson wondered if anyone has a photograph of the V-tailed Beech 35 Bonanza before the accident. The internet has a picture of the wreckage with what appears to be the registration, N3794N.
A window on chaff
Q Can anyone help John Coxclowne with a query on chaff, in particular Rapid Blooming Window or RBW? John was an armourer…
