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Identifying Old Helicopter Blade


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I bought an older house a couple years ago. In the barn that came with it we found a blade tucked away in the ceiling beams. At one point a year or so ago, I thought I had identified it to be from a Gyrodyne but I cannot find the information any longer. I don't know much about helicopters in general (beyond the basic physics a high school science teacher would know) especially vintage/antique things like this.

Any help identifying, explaining, valuing etc would be great! Or even direction towards resources/other groups that could help!

I've attached images. But also put the part number I can make out from the informational tag on the below:

 Part No. V63-315-700-1-31

 

 

PXL_20201130_004342675.jpg

PXL_20201130_004104716.jpg

PXL_20201130_004013402.jpg

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HI,

I can't help you directly, as it's not a rotor from anything I've personally flown or seen, but some research from the info you provided does not exclude that it's a Gyrodyne blade, possibly from a RON-1 Rotorcycle.  The configuration of the main attachment bolts and the 6 bolt plate on the blade grips sure resembles pictures of its rotor.  The BUWEPS reference on the dataplate is a Bureau of Navy Weapons inspection, as you probably already knew.  That aircraft was demo'd to the Navy and Marine Corp in the 50's and early 60's.

You may be able to contact the US Navy Museum in Washington for more info regarding identification or value.  They may even want it.

The U-shaped pitch horn attached to the grip may have been an attachment used in blade testing

Edited by Inthegreen
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After a little further digging based on older pics, it's definitely some variant of a Gyrodyne air vehicle. I attached a pic of the QH-50, a little US Navy anti-sub drone. Its blades appear very similar to the one you have. If you zoom in on the upper blade you'll note a similar data plate, the same "...BLADE ONLY" tag, and even the "U" shaped attachment on the root. Which seems to be some sort of mount for weights used during track and balance if I had to guess. Seems like a potentially cool piece of history. 

NASM-GyrodyneQH-50_5380.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/6/2022 at 1:31 PM, Daggerfall said:

I bought an older house a couple years ago. In the barn that came with it we found a blade tucked away in the ceiling beams. At one point a year or so ago, I thought I had identified it to be from a Gyrodyne but I cannot find the information any longer. I don't know much about helicopters in general (beyond the basic physics a high school science teacher would know) especially vintage/antique things like this.

Any help identifying, explaining, valuing etc would be great! Or even direction towards resources/other groups that could help!

I've attached images. But also put the part number I can make out from the informational tag on the below:

 Part No. V63-315-700-1-31

 

 

PXL_20201130_004342675.jpg

PXL_20201130_004104716.jpg

What a peculiar story to find that blade, in an old house barn and it was kind of hidden in the ceiling. Hehe and yeah even high school physics tutors /teachers with access to new technologies devices don't have much information as to identify this. I wonder how that blade got specifically there? I bet most definitely will be one of those cases where it was never fully revealed the whole story at least. Has there been an update on this?

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