Prop-driven aircraft

[Ford Prefect]

I was taken by a sudden notion recently: how fast could a plane using propellers travel, at the most extreme upper end of 'reasonable'. I don't know much about propeller driven aircraft, so I have no idea of the highest speed ever attained by such a plane, or if there is some sort of upper limit no one ever reached for because it would have been inane.

[Simplicius]

I might be wrong, but I think there is a practical upper limit which is based on the proximity of the speed of the propeller blades versus the speed of sound. Something about how the propeller blades will exceed Mach 1 well before the aircraft does, but once that happens the propeller's efficiency degrades, and so the performance of the aircraft is limited.

The current recognized record is 528.33 mph, held by an F8F Bearcat modified for the Reno races. The record that plane broke was set in 1939, so you get an idea that the limits of conventional piston+propeller tech are just that, limits.

[Gullible Jones]

IIRC, it actually is possible to go supersonic with a propeller aircraft, though the propeller requires special design for that... Yeah, here's something on it.

[Ford Prefect]

Wow, you really can make a supersonic prop-driven plane! I ask the question because of a story I have in mind, but everytime I thought 'supersonic propeller driven aircraft' I'd start giggling, because it seemed too bizarre to actually be possible.

[Simplicius]

Yeah, I was thinking of piston-engined planes - my bad. Though I didn't know that the XF-88 actually topped Mach 1, even if by a bit. I remember that the Thunderscreech program wasn't able to break the sound barrier, though it was fuck-loud thanks to all those shock waves coming off the propeller blades.

[Sea Skimmer]

IIRC, it actually is possible to go supersonic with a propeller aircraft, though the propeller requires special design for that... Yeah, here's something on it.

That aircraft flew to mach 1 with the propeller spinning, but it was feathered and NOT actually powering the aircraft, which also happen to have two jet engines. The highest speed actually reached under propeller driven power is 528mph for a single engine aircraft, a modified F8F Bearcat, and 545mph for the multi engine Tu-114 airliner. Before anyone brings it up, the XF-84H did not in fact reach 623mph, despite being designed for 680 something, and actually achieved only about 500mph before stability problems terminated testing.