The aircraft propeller looks like a simple mechanism to the uneducated .
To the educated, an aircraft propeller represents the highest sophistication in .
aerodynamics, mechanical engineering and structural design. This report will touch on the history of .
the propeller, from early pioneers/experiments, advancement during/after the war, all the way up to .
current applications of the propeller. The creation of the propeller can be traced back to Leonardo .
da Vinci. Da Vinci's "helical screw- helicopter is believed to be the ancestor of the air propeller and .
the helicopter rotor. The first idea of a propulsive airscrew, however, belongs to J.P. Paucton, a .
French mathematician. Paucton envisioned a flying machine that had two airscrews, one for .
propulsion and the other for sustaining flight. The idea of using an airscrew for propulsion was .
utilized during the late 1700's to early 1800's. Only after experimentation did the inventors conclude .
that more propulsive power could be obtained by merely straightening out the surface of the .
airscrew blades. Attempts to utilize the "straight blade- propeller were made by balloonists. These .
contraptions were quite strange and hardly fulfilled their purpose of actually propelling the balloon. .
The basic propeller had evolved from the simple concepts of da Vinci, and was slowly becoming an .
effective means of aerial propulsion. To reach the next plateau of flight an increased knowledge of .
the propeller would be needed, and the mysteries of the propeller and mechanical power would .
need to be solved. These substantial tasks remained for aviation's pioneers to tackle during the 19th .
century. Throughout the 19th century, aviation pioneers explored and tinkered with the concepts of .
flight to design a viable airship. Some pioneers tried to transform the balloons into navigable cigar .
shaped airships by experimenting with sails, propellers, and paddlewheels but all produced limited .
