Propeller Design: Precone, Feather, and Construction Axis

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will discuss how to apply pre-cone and how to alter the construction and feather axes to change how the propeller blades are built and rotated.  The construction axis, defined by Construct X/C, is how the blade airfoils are placed relative to one another by a chord percentage.  For example, a value of 0.0 will align all airfoils at their leading edges while a value of 0.25 will align the airfoils at the quarter-chord location.  The feather axis, in contrast, controls where along the blade root chord the feather axis passes through the blade.  The entire blade will shift along the root chord direction relative to a fixed feather axis.