Hartzell—the Ohio-based manufacturer of composite and aluminum propellers for all manner of aircraft—is readying itself for the rise of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and the fielding of myriad air-vehicles that promise to return the propeller to prominence.
The rise of the gas-turbine—read jet—engine in the 1940s heralded the propeller’s relegation to antiquity. Within the military and business aviation sectors, propeller-driven aircraft clung tenaciously to relevance, evolving into the C-130s, A400Ms, and King Airs by which modern-day troops and executives are shuttled about to wreak their respective havocs on locale insufficiently developed or auspicious to merit real jet traffic.
General aviation, however, and its legions of light, sport and utility aircraft, remained the near-exclusive province of the propeller and the principal source of sales and succor for companies like Hartzell—but in the prophetic, if not atonal, words of Bob Dylan, Times, they are a-changin’.
Comes now the second-age of the venerable propeller, a weird and wondrous age, the promise of which is written in the order books of Archer, Joby, Lilium, Vertical, Wisk, and Eve—aeronautical upstarts whose superb timing and genuine cleverness have earned them billions upon billions of dollars in aircraft orders from customers the likes of American and Virgin Atlantic Airlines.
Hartzell has sensed the propwash of change and—owing to the long years and big dollars the company has invested in the continuous betterment of its designs and materials—now stands ready to hitch its fortunes to the rising star that is Advanced Air Mobility.
Among the most pivotal of Hartzell’s years was 1978. The Bee Gees were Stayin’ Alive, Gerry Rafferty was cruising Baker Street, and Hartzell was about the business of building its first composite propeller. No one in the company—neither the troops nor the executives—could have guessed at that time that forty-years on, the aeronautical vanguard would be borne upon composite rotors, and that the propeller would so significantly contribute to the advancement of a world that had wrongfully deemed it passe.
Aero-TV is a production of the Internationally syndicated Aero-News Network. Seen worldwide by hundreds of thousands of aviators and aviation adherents, ANN's Aero-TV has produced over 5000 aviation and feature programs, including nearly 2000 episodes of our daily aviation news program, AIRBORNE UNLIMITED, currently hosted by Holland Lee. Now in its third decade of operation, parent company Aero-News Network, has the most aggressive and intensive editorial profile of any aviation news organization and has published nearly a half-million news and feature stories since its inception -- having pioneered the online 24/7 aviation new-media model that so many have emulated.
With Testing Soon Complete, Launch Preparations Begin in Earnest Sierra Space's Dream Chaser has been put through the wringer at NASA's Glenn Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio, but w>[...]
Takeoff Roll The process whereby an aircraft is aligned with the runway centerline and the aircraft is moving with the intent to take off. For helicopters, this pertains to the act>[...]
“We’re proud of the hard work that went into receiving this validation, and it will be a welcome relief to our customers in the European Union. We couldn’t be mor>[...]
"Aircraft Spruce is pleased to announce the acquisition of the parts distribution operations of Wag-Aero. Wag-Aero was founded in the 1960’s by Dick and Bobbie Wagner in the >[...]
IDENT Feature The special feature in the Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS) equipment. It is used to immediately distinguish one displayed beacon target from other be>[...]