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Bill Bradburry wrote:
There have been a lot of these planes. Howard Hughes built the XF-11 and damn nearly killed himself with it when it crashed in California.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Contra-rotating_propellers
The LARC website from NASA had some studies of contra-rotating props that showed some significant efficiency increases when the blades were pitched and spaced correctly. It also allowed more power to be absorbed with a short prop, a problem that was starting to become a real headache for designers at the end of WWII.
I am also a proponent of "suck air from around the spinner so that the inner portion of the prop becomes useful" school of thought.
http://ernest.isa-geek.org/Delta/Pictures/EngineCowling2.jpg
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