High pitch = more power = fast planes. They don't last long because they have small batteries.
Reminds me of what I read about the Schneider Trophy in the Twenties. The non-variable pitch propellors were set up for such high speeds (high pitch) that they could barely pull the planes through the water when starting to move.
They'd flail the air unmercifully at first, throwing up enormous amounts of spray, drenching everyone around them. I saw one pic of the Supermarine race entry (predecessor of the Spitfire) where the countertorque from the powerful engine almost completely buried one of the floats in the water as it muddled its way along at startup.
Several stills in this one reveal the aggressive prop pitch.
https://youtu.be/-qxwsLu1tssShore handlers drenched:
https://youtu.be/bjwqTHTLAEASay, I assume in the OP's Navy videos that those little props were turning generators to charge something, no? I mean they had cartooney electrical lightning bolts to indicate something like that. But what were they charging? And why? Or were they for something else?
Glorious photography, but I think I'd have enjoyed them more with a modicum of narration or maybe subtitles. I know you guys who served knew all about it, and you were the intended audience, but I was puzzled by a lot of the stuff.
Like those little props. Were they some kind of stealth technology to scatter incoming radar...? Or to return false reflections...?
Terry
REF:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Trophy
