Question about 5 blade spitfire props for those who may know

[upnorth]

Hello all:

I'm slowly getting some ideas together from my West Austrian AF P-51 Mustang and the idea of the five blade prop from late model Spitfires hit me to give it a more post war look.

I can get my hands on Quickboost's five blade prop easily enough or buy a cheap kit of a five blader for spare purposes.

However, I can't find any reliable measurement comparisons between the five blade prop and spinner and the standard four blade props the Mustang actually had. If anyone knows if the five blade can actually be slapped on as a straight replacement, I'd really appreciate it.

As the Mustang will be a second hand machine and be serving in the early 50s, I don't want to do too much in the way of radical changes, just smaller stuff.

I've faired over the gun muzzles and blanked off the shell ejector chutes so it's a base hack aircraft late in it's life; but I thought a prop change might make it look like they were trying to squeeze that extra bit from her.

I plan to keep it on a Merlin engine as I'm sure the Merlin would have no problems driving the five blade.

Thanks for any insights.

[kitnut617]

Just one problem that I can see upnorth, the five-blade props were found on Griffon engined Spits only, the Griffon turned the prop in the opposite direction to the Merlin.

In my DH.101 project I needed a five-blade prop that turned in the same direction for a Merlin too, but then I was looking for something as big as a tempest prop.  What I did was to use the Aeroclub Sea Fury white metal prop, twist the blades at the hub to change the pitch the other way, but then turn the prop around.  The Aeroclub Sea Fury prop has such thin blades the airfoil of the blades are virtually non-existant so the appearance doesn't seem wrong.

You could use one of these props and trim the blade lengths down to the Mustang blade lengths.  The Spit five-blade prop would be very difficult to twist in the same manner because of it's unique blade profiles.  BTW, if you look in Squadron's P-51 in Action, there's a photo of a five-blade prop on a Mustang.

[PR19_Kit]

Robert speaks correctly, the 5-bladers fitted to most Griffon engined Spits don't taper as they get to the spinner, they're almost parallel at full chord width when they reach it. Not only that, they're a pretty thick section there as well and it would be very difficult to reverse the pitch on one of them.

Darned if I can think of any Merlin engined aircraft that used a 5-blader as standard, although I'm sure someone on here will come up with one now! 

[kitnut617]

This one did Kit, the XP-51G --- although not a 'standard' service type.  The Sea Fury prop matches quite well with the blade shape though --

[PR19_Kit]

This one did Kit, the XP-51G --- although not a 'standard' service type.  

Told you....... 

That does look rather good though, doesn't it? That would work rather nicely on an F-6H Mustang I have in mind. That's a P-51H with cameras and longer wings of course......

[upnorth]

Thanks for the input guys.

Perhaps I might just grap a cheap PM Sea Fury for the prop going by what you've said.

[sequoiaranger]

Here's my version--but I had to "invent" a different engine to "allow" the opposite-spinning prop.

[pyro-manic]

The DH Hornet had "handed" Merlins (Mark 130 and 131 IIRC) - the same could have been fitted to a Mustang? Not too much of a stretch IMO. Or the gearing from the Griffon the 5-blader was scavenged from could have been pinched along with the prop?