I would just suggest kind of empirical method for prop, i dont know what you guys think about it.

Take electric engine, not airworthy but just strong one with known efficiency and test different props thrust at different RPM at static condition. With electric engine it must be easy to get the power needed to run a prop at given RPM- just measure current and voltage and substract the power needed to run engine unloaded at same RPM. All setup might be on testbench equipped with dynamometer or kind of weight balance to measure thrust.
It wont take airframe into account but would be a good starting point.

The next would be to get aerodynamic pitch of propeller and estimate the zero thrust speed of prop at given RPM. In such a way we will have two points on the thrust vs airspeed chart- thrust at zero speed and speed at zero thrust for each RPM value (say in steps of 1000 rpm).

Question woud be what to do next- draw a straight line to connect two points? Or fit some function to connect them? To make measurements at non zero speed is propably tricky. Inherent drawback is the stall at static conditions.

I am sure one doesnt need to measure all the props- interpolation should work within similar props.

I would donate few props for such project.


For purely numerical methods one should go for Xfoil and perform calculations for each segment of blade there. But such dedicated soft must exist.

Eagle One- thanks for link, i didnt know that APC have homepage. In my very modest experience i tried APC and props from four other brands with same nominal pitch and diameter and as they say "I feel the difference".