Cheaper than bullets?
British planes had a warning light that would illuminate whenever the prop needed to be run backward to keep the paint on, but in the true spirit of British electrical systems, the light tended to malfunction and just stay on all the time. Most pilots came to ignore it, with tragic results.
15 RAF servicemembers and one Yorkshire Terrier were recorded as being wounded by sleeves of used paint slung from aircraft…
Yeah then they were really screwed…
No, the only props that had even a hint of paint sliding were Hartzellos.
Dr
What about the navy’s pre war tri color tips? was that like sand art while spinning?[^o)]
As everyone knows, the original color of the freshly manufactured props was yellow. The tips were left that way because that’s where they held them when painting the rest of the prop black. As everybody knows.
Kind of reminds me of the time I heard my father tell someone that the contrails from jet airliners was the pilots putting their airbrakes so they could slow down to land.
Toward the end of WWII, with resources becoming scarcer by the day, the Luftwaffe did all they could to keep their remaining aircraft looking good. Of huge concern was the propeller, as this would be the first thing that the ever present allied bombers would see when they met them. Top official ordered that all fighters should maintain a pristine & shiny propeller as part of the propaganda war to convince the enemy that the defending Luftwaffe were in a better condition than they actually were.
With many of their bases in ruins & operating from makeshift facilities around Europe, it became ever more difficult for the ground crew to get their fighters into the (now non existent) paint shops for their weekly “prop paint”. Some ingenuity was required to address the issue;
Suitably equipped ground crew, with a tin of black, a tin of yellow & two brooms (one marked schwarz the other marked gelb), restrained by a safety harness would approach the aircraft from the front;
Occasionally this would be carried out by civilian subcontractors;
At which point the chief would take over control of the operation, working with the engineer on-board to obtain optimum RPM for paint application;
The painter would then approach the spinning propeller & edge his paint soaked brush forward onto the prop disk, this process allowed the propeller to be rapidly painted, without the need of the paint shop, or even ladders (aluminum was in short supply).
Due to the prestigious post of “prop painting” & it’s higher pay rate, sometime ground crew rivalry between the engineers & painters would get out of hand. This picture shows Hermann the engineer seconds before he applied full power in an effort to get rid of Wilhelm (the painter on his crew) & take over his position;
Hermann’s efforts were wasted, as Wilhelm dived to the ground, safely avoiding the ensuing catastrophe. Unfortunately for Hermann, the extra RPM he demanded caused a substantial amount of black paint to be drawn through the propeller & sprayed toward him - amids the confusion Hermann didn’t throttle back until it was too late;
(Note that the painters gazebo can be seen directly behind the aircraft).
It wasn’t until near the end of the war that the Allies came to understand the rapid demise of the Luftwaffe, the air force that thanks to some clever painting had their enemy fooled, when they found a “prop painting rig” after capturing an airfield;
The drum of paint which the aircraft has run over seems to indicate further ground crew rivalry problems, as does the strengthened painters restraining frame.
Note that in the original uncensored picture that the painters gazebo is directly behind the left wing of the P-51.
In answer to the original question, yes it is 100% true that the yellow paint was used to stop the black sliding. Don’t be fooled by props that appear to be all black, they still use yellow paint at the tip, but it has been died black for reasons of subterfuge.
Any aircraft industry insider will openly tell you that all propellers are actually painted black, with a yellow “slip stop” coating applied to the tips, they just some times appear to be white, silver or whatever because the black & yellow paints have been dyed for camouflage or cosmetic reasons.
Some smart arse on the A400M project for some reason attempted to “buck the trend” and make it’s props in a bizarre black/yellow/black/yellow format. Rather that admitting defeat on this & having a regular prop paint format, they have added an extra 4 blades to each prop, put a kink in the blades & have even got some of the engines running in reverse - but the black keeps sliding off.
Note the painters gazebo at rear!!
Well actually, most people know putting the plane in reverse gear allows it to fly backward. The second purpose for reverse that most don’t know about is that it sucks the black paint back up on the props.
And by the way, regular milk comes from a white cow, chocolate milk comes from a black cow, and strawberry milk comes from a red cow. A farmer told me that so it has to be true.
And if anyone believes any of that I’ve got some fantastic ocean-front property in West Virginia that I’m selling really cheap.
And thanks Milairjunkie - am ROTFL now. [:P]
I thought the yellow was added by the French,
Eric
You have obviously researched the top further than myself, but just remember - it doesn’t matter what colour the tip is, it is still yellow, even when it’s not.
My source tells me that the white or yellow “corkscrew” was painted on to keep the paint on the prop spinner from flying off…
This is the RICC effect “Regenerative Inverse Cyclonic Centrifuge” - sometimes abbreviated to BS - but again still yellow!
What keeps the yellow paint on the tips from sliding off?
Sorry, forgot to add that those yellow leading edges seen on RAF aircraft during the Second World War were the same principle. The British pilots were trained to suddenly slam on their airbrakes when a German plane got on their tail. Then the now stationary RAF fighter could fill the over-shooting German plane with lead as it went by. The only problem was the sudden stops were causing the paint to fly off the plane’s wings as well. So the yellow non-slip paint was added to the leading edges of wings as well as the props.
The Japanese copied the British but used a lower quality paint. Therefore you see Japanese aircraft in natural metal with some green camo applied. This was caused when the yellow leading edges stopped some of the paint but not all of it leaving a mottled appearance.
The USAAF due to a SNAFU never applied the yellow non-slip paint causing American aircraft to be shipped in olive drab and neutral grey but end up natural metal by the end of the war after all the paint slid off the machines.
There was a plot to kill Hilter called operation yellow-kyrie. Baron Von Stripperburg was going to remove the yellow propellor paint off Hilter’s tri-engine Fokker, thus causing the black paint to slide off, causing the plane to become unstable and crash. Unfortunately the Baron was unsuccessful, because we all know it takes two hands to strip yellow paint.
Several decades ago DHL carried out a study on the costs associated with aircraft painting & discovered that the most effective way to keep their fleet looking good was to paint the whole lot in “slip stop” yellow, as the paints exceptional properties meant that they would most likley never have to paint their aircraft again. Such were the economies of scale that is was financialy beneficial for DHL to paint every single pice of equipment in their inventory in “slip stop”.
Apparently the designers picked up the wrong end of the stick on this one, not realising that there creatiuon would not move fast enough to require “slip stop”;
When the black propellers were spinning, it rendered them virtually invisible. Is that why stealth airplanes nowadays are painted black? Because when they’re sitting motionless on the ground, I can see the planes. But once they start going really fast, they become invisible. Is that why?
Eric
if honey is bee poop, are ice cream cones frosty the snowman poop?
No, everyone knows it’s snow cones.[;)]
-Stephen[cwby]