Turb-O-Prop Advertisement
December 1954 Air Trails Hobbies for Young Men

December 1954 Air Trails

December 1954 Air Trails Cover - Airplanes and RocketsTable of Contents

These pages from vintage modeling magazines like Flying Aces, Air Trails, American Modeler, American Aircraft Modeler, Young Men, Flying Models, Model Airplane News, R/C Modeler, captured the era. All copyrights acknowledged.

I suppose in a technical sense this contraption is a turboprop insofar as it uses a jet engine (or more correctly a rocket engine) to power a standard propeller. There are a couple problems with the claims made in this Turb-O-Prop advertisement that appeared in the December 1954 edition of Air Trails. First, since the propulsion unit looks to be about the size of a Jetex 50 motor, there is no way it can be "Comparable to '1/2-A' conventional engines," unless they mean a 1/2-A at idle power. Second, the claim of "Absolutely no torque - but super-powered jetlike thrust," cannot be correct unless the propeller and  jet engine rotate in opposite directions and are equal in torque. As Mr. Newton pointed out, for every action there is and equal and opposite reaction. It might be vibration-free, but it ain't torque-free.

Turb-o-Prop Advertisement, December 1954 Air Trails - Airplanes and Rockets

Turb-o-Prop Advertisement

 

 

Posted March 16, 2013