Word: propping
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Dates: during 1950-1950
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...Studio prop boys, not TIME'S cover artist, tricked up double-action revolvers to look like single-action frontier models...
Designers of airplane propellers used to weep into their blueprints every time a jet plane roared over the plant. They feared that the fierce little jets, which have no propellers, were the wave of the future. These days the prop designers are more cheerful. The performance of Allison's XT-4O turboprop engine (5,500 h.p.) has made many airplane companies think once more in terms of propellers. The prop men are sure that propellers, drastically redesigned, can keep up even with the fastest airplanes...
Wasp Waists. Searching for a prop that could be used efficiently above 450 m.p.h., Hamilton's engineers, led by Chief Aero-dynamicist George Rosen, tried all sorts of shapes. One design, intended to sidestep shock waves, had curved blades, quite like the swept-back wings of a fast modern fighter. Another had a blade with a pinched-in "waist." Some blades were short and broad so that they could spin rapidly without nearing sonic speed. All these designs proved unsatisfactory...
Hamilton's prop men designed a thin, knife-edged blade of conventional, square-tipped shape that would move fast enough all along its length to leave shock waves behind. This did the trick. Tested in a wind tunnel, a scale model of the new propeller proved to be 80% efficient at 600 m.p.h. No shock waves roiled the air-flow over its smooth surfaces. Shock waves are not quick enough...
...prop schoolers boast a 4 and 1 season's record. They have beaten Governor Drummer, Lawrence, and M.I.T., three teams that the Yardlings also whipped...