The First Airborne Props

At the end of the 15th century, circa 1490, the artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) designed a crude form of airscrew (or prop) for his helicopter design. The design never left the drawing board but the word helicopter has been with us ever since. The French mathematician, J. P. Paucton introduced the idea of using two propellers on airships, one to propel the craft forwards and the other to lift it upwards; it was not successful! It was to be nearly three hundred years until 16 October 1784, when Jeanne-Pierre Blanchard (1753­1809) used the first airborne propeller on his hot air balloon. The propeller consisted of three metal plates attached to the end of poles, which were rotated by hand and again, were not successful. On 24 September 1852, Henri Gifford (1825-1882) a French engineer, used a three horsepower (2.24 kW) steam engine on his dirigible (steerable) air ship driving a three-blade 11 feet (3.35 m) propeller to achieve the first powered flight covering a distance of 18 miles (30 km) from Paris to Trappes. On 9 August 1884, Captains Charles Renard and Arthur Krebbs of the French Corps of Engineers completed a circular coarse of five miles (8 km) in their airship La France. The 23 feet (7.01 m) four-blade wooden propeller was powered by a nine horsepower (6.7 kW) Gramme electric motor. The prop turned at a very slow 50 RPM. Around this time, other pioneers had varying amounts of success, propelling their airships using propellers turned by hand, or powered by electric or petrol driven engines