Hi all,
An interesting post from David Bremner, during the build of his Bristol Scout 1264.
The Scout, like other aircraft of that period, had no synchronizing gear for forward firing machine guns.
Most know of the death of Max Immelmann in his Fokker E, when it's been suggested that his aircraft broke up when bullets from his machine guns hit the propeller.
David carried out an interesting experiment by firing 0.303 rounds (as for a Lewis machine gun) from a rifle into a half built propeller.
As can be seen from the following photograph, the rounds passed through the propeller without too much damage.
Admittedly the propeller would have been static so centrifugal forces etc would not have been taken into account.
Nonetheless, it's an interesting experiment.
"Here’s our half propeller, with two holes, which is more or less what you might expect from emptying a Lewis gun drum of 47 rounds. As you can see, the propeller will pretty definitely get you home."
Mike