Is the acceleration of a mass of air to the rear of the aircraft.

The reaction is that the aeroplane is

pulled forward

Since the angle of a propeller blade varies along its length, a particular blade station must be chosen
to specify the pitch of a blade. Rather than using blade angles at a reference station, some propeller
manufaactures express pitch in inches at 75% of the radius. This is the geometcric pitch, or the
distance this particular element would move forward in one revolution along a helix, or spiral, equal to
its blade angle

The effective pitch is the actual distance a propeller advances through the air in one revolution. This
cannot by determined by the pitch angle alone because it is affected by the forward velocity of the
airplane.
10.1. PROPELER THRUST

Thrust can be generated by a propeller in two ways :

1.Aerodynamic principle – airflow over a cambered aerofoil surface (bernoulli’s theorem)
2.Cold jet principle – the acceleration of large mass of air rearward (Newton’s 3rd law)

The thrust produced by a propeller is dependent upon a number of factors

Speed the blade moves through the air
Cross sectional shape of the blade
Density of the air
Angle of attack
10.2 PROPELLER THRUST DUE TO AERODYNAMIC FORCES

the blade rotation generates aerodynamic “lift and drag” in a similiar way to an aircraft
wing. These forces are of little practical use when assessing the performance of a
propeller. With the propeller, the most important forces are those acting:
Along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. These forces are known as the “thrust” of the
propeller.
At right angles to the propeller longitudinal axis. These forces are known as the propeller
“torque”
(A turning moment generated when a propeller rotates)
Propellers are similiar in aerofoil section to a low drag wing and as such are poor in operation when at
other than their optimum angle of attack. A fixed pitch propeller is always a compromise between
acceleration or climb performance, and Cruise Speed. You cannot have both without varying the pitch
of the Blades. Control systems are required to counter the need for accurate matching of pitch to flight
speed and engine speed.
Relative Airflow and Angle of Attack
The method used to obtain an increase in thrust is to incline the chord line f the propeller blade to a
positive angle to the oncoming airstream.
The most efficient result are obtained when the angle is set between 20 and 40.
When the angle of attackhas been increased to approximately 140 – 160 , the airstream flowing over
the blade stalls and becomes totally turbulent, and all thrust is lost.
Aircraft acceleration on takeoff due to most of it being in effective “stall” until some forward velocity
reduces AoA below 160
 Effect of RPM and Aircraft’s Velocity on Angle of Attack

The angle of attack is the angle between the aerofoil chord line and the relative wind, and the direction
of the relative wind is the resultant of the combined velocities of rotation speed (RPM) and
airspeed.
 Forces on a Blade Element

The component this obtained which is parallel to the flight path is the thrust force, and that which
remains is the propeller torque force.

Notice that the propeller torque forces is the resistance to motion in the plane of rotation.