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Old 09-21-2003 | 05:09 PM
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rw Guinn's Avatar
rw Guinn
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From: Fort Worth, TX
Default RE: RPM and speed

ORIGINAL: roywiglesworth

this might help



formula pitch x rpm x effency (1 would be a perfect airframe with no drag a .5 would be something like a cub for jet style prop planes a .85 would be close to
a real figure) x .000947 = mph
at 100% efficiency (1.0 in the above formula) a 6" pitch (10X6, 11x6, etc( would move 6 inches forward every full revolution. 10000rpm=60000 inches/minute,or 5000 feet/minute or about a mile/minute, or 56.8 MPH (Which is what that formula gives). Obviously not the case, as most of my 40 size Big Stik will do well over 60 MPH flat out, and certainly better than a .85 efficiency will give ( which is 48 MPH-assuming a slick model, which the stik is certainly NOT). but then, the airplane moving thru the air is NOT a static case, as the mere "pitch" would indicate. Although a prop is called an "airscrew", its action is considerably more complex than that.
2 props,of the same diameter turning THE SAME RPM (nit pickers, note the caveats!) will generate two forces, which go by the term "Thrust". The prop with higher pitch will generate more "thrust", and accelerate a given (Again with the caveats) airframe faster than the low pitch prop will.
F=m*a.
going to a bigger diameter increases efficiency.