"The Aviation Consumer" magazine did an article on just that topic in
August 2005. Bottom line: for aircraft under 250 HP, gains in
performance were subjective and variable. In general, three blades gave
better climb, less noise, less vibration, more ground clearance, and
looked sexy. Two blades produced higher cruise speed on less fuel , were
lighter, and were cheaper: but not always.
I don't care to defend these conclusions, I'm merely summarizing the
article.
GRoberts
A187
writes:
>
>
> Propeller Experts !!
>
> I wish to upgrade to a CS prop with full feather option, the main
> reason
> being the feathering capability. The obvious choice for many is the
>
> Airmaster AP332. Now the Woodcomp SR3000 has the same options, and I
> believe
> is a lot cheaper. In addition it has the option for a 2 or 3-bladed
>
> propeller. My question is this :
> What are the pros and cons between 2 and 3 blades, apart from the
> considerable weight saving of 4 kg. Why are we all using 3-bladed
> Warp
> Drives ? The Katana, which is a similar but much heavier aircraft
> uses a
> 2-bladed CS Hoffmann on a Rotax 912.
>
> Any ideas ?
>
> Karl
>
>
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