Good article on props (“Propeller Theory 101,” November). Many years ago, I had an old airplane that when you applied power rapidly on takeoff, you would get a surge in rpm that I think was caused by the prop first being stalled, and then “unstalled.”
The airplane was a North American P-51 with a 1490-hp Merlin engine driving a four-blade Hamilton-Standard prop, which was geared down to where it was only turning 1400 rpm or so. (I could afford it back then; I paid $12,000 for it and it came with a new spare engine in a crate!)
