ORIGINAL: HighPlains
Prop theory and practice deserves an entire thread, perhaps a greater mystery to making a great prop than the rest of the airframe. I worked for one prop manufacturer that made the best wood props, and knew another pretty well that makes great plastic props.
The" best prop" can not be calculated - it can be not even be predicted - just guessed at
Why?
the prop is part of interaction with model and power
IF you had electric power and telemetry ,you could read power consumed at full load possible , then start changing props to find th one which went the fastest at full motor power
On glow/ gas engines, the guess work gets harder as rpm does NOT equate to power being fed into the prop-
If you are diving to gain speed - then all bets are off