WW1 huge American wooden propellor, for a Thomas-Morse S4C Scout, c. 1918

Name: WW1 huge American wooden propellor, for a Thomas-Morse S4C Scout, c. 1918
SKU: 1031985
Price: 2500.00 AUD
Availability: InStock

$2,500.00 AUD

Very large American wooden propellor, from a Thomas-Morse S4C Scout, superbly made from laminated hardwood (oak?) with 8-hole central mount.

Inscribed at the mount with model number, RPM, engine type, plane type, etc. as follows:

“Rpm 1210 ENG LE PHONE PA?? NO18631 BAP NO. 84501 PLANE S4CS ??ING”

Circa 1918

240cm

Good condition, displays well, cleaned & re-finished some time ago, small bruises to edges.

Le Rhone were popular French rotary aircraft engines made by Société des Moteurs, Le Rhône and the successor company of Gnome et Rhône. They were used to power a wide range of Allied aircraft in WWI, including the Sopwith Camel, the Bristol Scout, as well as the Thomas-Morse S4C Scout in the US, which entered production in 1918.

The writing around the mount of this example informs us of the intended RPM, the intended engine, and the plane it has been made for – an American ‘S4C’. This was the Thomas-Morse-S4C-Scout, first flight 1917, production &* usage 1918 in Europe. 465 of this aircraft were built, of which the first 51 had a different engine; this propellor has been used on one of the remaining 404.
They gained the nicname ‘Tommy’ during the war, and afterwards were a popular aircraft for flying schools and sportsman fliers. Hollywood used Tommies in innumerable WWI-themed films for many years to play the part of the allied aircraft.

100 years later….. only a single example is airworthy, and it is not flown, having made its last fight in 2018 to celebrate 100 the 100 year anniversary of production. 12 others are partially in existence, or on display as static artifacts.