Propeller Manufacturing
Founded in 1929 when United Aircraft and Transport Corporation consolidated Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into the Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation. Hamilton Standard became the leading maker of aircraft propellers, producing more than 500,000 during World War II. In 1949 the subsidiary removed Propeller from its name and began to diversify, starting with the development of aircraft fuel controls and satellite control equipment and moving on to life-support systems for the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules and the space shuttle and space suits for the U.S. space program.
Hartzell Propeller was founded in 1917 by Robert N. Hartzell as the Hartzell Walnut Propeller Company. It is an American manufacturer of composite and aluminum propellers for certified, homebuilt, and ultralight aircraft. The company headquarters is located in Piqua, Ohio.
Hartzell produces propellers, spinners, governors, ice protection systems, and other propeller controls.
Robert Hartzell grew up in the village of Oakwood, Ohio just a block from Hawthorn Hill, where Orville Wright lived.From the 1890s until the late 1910s, Hartzell's father and grandfather operated a sawmill and lumber supply company in Greenville, Ohio (later moved to Piqua, Ohio) that also manufactured items like wagons and gun stocks for World War I. On the side, Robert owned a small airplane and did maintenance on it as a young man. In 1917, Orville Wright suggested that Hartzell use his walnut trees to manufacture an aircraft propeller for his plane and others. As a result, Robert Hartzell founded the Hartzell Walnut Propeller Company in Piqua that same year, and the company provided "Liberty" aircraft propellers for World War I warplanes.
After the war, Hartzell Propeller built its own airplanes, including the FC-1 (the first aircraft made entirely of plywood). The FC-1 took first place in the Flying Club of St. Louis Trophy Race at the 1923 International Air Meet. An alteration to the wings resulted in the improved FC-2 model, which won over aircraft from the Waco Aircraft Company and the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company) at the 1924 International Air Races in Dayton, Ohio. Hartzell stopped producing aircraft to avoid competing with its own propeller customers. In 1926, Hartzell began building propellers for the Aeronca C-2.
During World War II the company produced metal propellers for Hamilton-Standard. After the war, Hartzell produced the first composite propellers for the Republic RC-3 Seabee. Hartzell began making aluminum propellers in 1948 and developed the first full-feathering propellers for a light twin-engine aircraft in the 1950s. These were used in the Aero Commander, Piper Apache, Cessna 310, and Beech Twin Bonanza.
Hartzell introduced a turboprop propeller in 1961 and in 1975 certified a 5-bladed propeller for the Shorts 330. In 1978, the company produced a composite aramid fiber propeller for the CASA 212. In 1989, Hartzell produced sixteen-foot propellers for the Boeing Condor, another record-breaking aircraft.
Hartzell introduced Top-Prop, replacement propellers for piston-engine aircraft, in 1991, and sold 20,000 Top-Prop conversion kits from 1991 to 2013.
In 1994, the company held the first Friends of Hartzell Air Show in Piqua, Ohio.for which Hartzell developed its first aerobatic system. In 2013, the Red Bull Air Race World Championship chose Hartzell to provide 3-blade composite propellers, carbon fiber composite spinners, and governors to race teams. In 2006, the FAA granted Hartzell the first certification for an Advanced Structural Composite (ASC II) propeller for general aviation.
Sensenich Propeller, founded in 1932, is an American manufacturer of wood, metal and compositepropellers for certified, homebuilt and ultralight aircraft, as well as airboats. The company headquarters is located in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
The company was initially established in 1932 as Sensenich Brothers to make aircraft propellers, but expanded into airboat propellers in 1949, establishing a second factory for that market at Plant City, Floridaunder the name Sensenich Wood Propeller Company
McCauley Propeller Systems, founded in 1938 by Earnest G. McCauley, is an American manufacturer of composite propellers for homebuilt and ultralight aircraft. The company headquarters was at one time located in Vandalia, Ohio, but is today located in Wichita, Kansas.
Originally called McCauley Aviation Corporation in September 1996, it was renamed McCauley Propeller Systems. The company was owned by Cessna, now part of Textron Aviation, which is in turn owned by Textron.
The company is noted for having invented the ground-adjustable, solid-steel propeller in 1941 and the forged aluminum propeller in 1946.
de Havilland Propellers was established in 1935, as a division of the de Havilland Aircraft company when that company acquired a licence from the Hamilton Standard company of America for the manufacture of variable-pitch propellers at a cost of about £20,000.Licence negotiations were completed in June 1934.
de Havilland Propellers, Ltd., was incorporated on 27 April 1946, with the main headquarters at Hatfield as the centre of design, development and flight-testing, and with the main production plant at Lostock in Lancashire. The factory had been built in only nine months as part of the government's emergency pre-war shadow-factory programme.
Work on missiles began in the late 1940s, early 1950s at the Hatfield plant in facilities which had been used during the war for development and testing of aircraft propellers. By the early sixties, the company became Hawker Siddeley Dynamics which in turn became British Aerospace Dynamics, later BAE Systems(Guided Weapons Division). The Hatfield site closed in 1990.
The Company was formed as Rotol Airscrews in 1937 by Rolls-Royce and Bristol Engines to take over both company's propeller development, the market being too small to really need more than one company in this space. The name is a contraction of "ROlls-Royce" and "BrisTOL".Rotol props were always considered leading edge, their models equipping the Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, and many other Second World War-era aircraft. By the end of the war they had introduced the first five-bladed propeller to see widespread use, used on late-model Spitfires.
In 1960 the Company merged with Dowty Equipment and continued as a subsidiary of what became Dowty Group.
In 1968 the company introduced the first fibreglasspropellers, which went on to see widespread use.Since then they have migrated to carbon fibre, and remain a leader in propeller design.
The Company was formed as Rotol Airscrews in 1937 by Rolls-Royce and Bristol Engines to take over both company's propeller development, the market being too small to really need more than one company in this space. The name is a contraction of "ROlls-Royce" and "BrisTOL". Rotol props were always considered leading edge, their models equipping the Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, and many other Second World War-era aircraft. By the end of the war they had introduced the first five-bladed propeller to see widespread use, used on late-model Spitfires.
In 1960 the Company merged with Dowty Equipment and continued as a subsidiary of what became Dowty Group.
In 1968 the company introduced the first fibreglasspropellers, which went on to see widespread use.Since then they have migrated to carbon fibre, and remain a leader in propeller design.
Information coming soon
Founded in 1915 by Charles Richard Fairey (later Sir Richard Fairey) and Belgian engineer Ernest Oscar Tips on their departure from Short Brothers, the company first built under licence or as subcontractor aircraft designed by other manufacturers.
The Propeller Division (Fairey-Reed Airscrews) was located at the Hayes factory, and used designs based on the patents of Sylvanus Albert Reed. C. R. Fairey first encountered Reed’s products in the mid-1920s when investigating the possibilities of the Curtiss D-12engine. The Curtiss company also manufactured propellers designed by Reed.