High Performance Propellers

Used Specifically on Tornado Airboats

Wide Blade Design
Adjustable Pitch
Strong, Lightweight Composite Construction
Performance
Efficiency
Durability 

                  Resistance to impact   on a Tornado

Have you ever really thought about how an airboat generates and delivers thrust? There is much more to it than a strong engine. Yet some air-boater's treat the propeller as little more than an afterthought. Quite a bit of time, effort, and money go into specifying a state-of-the-art airboat. All too often, engine performance, maximum torque, and other power plant concerns overshadow how horsepower is transferred from the engine to the air. An inefficient propeller wastes coveted horsepower. Consequently, the boat might not realize the top performance possible with a modern, state-of-the-art, wide-blade composite propeller.

Airboats are driven by air. Great volumes of air must be "captured" and thrown rearward at speeds above hurricane-force. The art of propeller design includes planform shape, airfoil shape, disc diameter, pitch distribution, and, most importantly, the material and structural integrity to withstand the huge centrifugal forces involved. Power Shift has fashioned its hollow combination of carbon, Kevlar^® and fiberglass composites into a shape almost perfect for the task.

Serious air-boater's ask a lot of their airboats. Many of our customers depend on their airboats for their livelihoods. Others have gone to great lengths to spec and build the best recreational airboat they can. In either case, these customers have been willing to spend more on their airboat propellers. Considering that the propeller is the most important element of any airboat, it's a worthwhile investment to make.

High performance doesn't have to give up high-efficiency. Power Shift Propellers for airboats are designed to give excellent thrust at low RPM with low weight - for quick spin-up and safety. At lower RPM levels, the engine doesn't have to burn as much fuel. There's less acoustic shock, and less noise.

Considering that these advanced wide-blade composite airboat propellers deliver better thrust, for less fuel burn, while lasting much longer than a wood propeller, they're actually LESS EXPENSIVE in the long run, than wood propellers. And they take a lot more punishment, too. The composite materials used in our blades have been known to outlast the stainless steel leading edges. When you take a look at some of the abuse these propellers have survived, without catastrophic failure. You'll wonder how you can afford to stay with wood.

Each blade is 100% hand-crafted from approximately 50 individual pieces of specially cut "prepreg" composite material. Our leading edges are applied to the blades just before they enter the mold. Co-curing with the rest of the blade allows the crimped edges to form a mechanical lock with the rest of the blade. As a result, leading edge separation  is nearly impossible under normal working conditions.

Port & Shank geometry is standard across all propeller models

The shank of any blade we make will fit into any hub we make... From our smallest, 2 blade 70" configuration (Signature Series), suitable for engines of  180 horsepower and higher, to our largest, 82" 6 blade configuration, suitable for engines producing up to 1000 horsepower. Our port & Shank design takes the sting out of upgrading your propeller. To upgrade your blades, there’s no need to buy a whole new propeller. Single replacement blades can  be substituted into a set (certain restrictions apply). However, while blades are interchangeable in our hub & shank geometry, do not mix blade styles  

Hubs are milled from forged billets of 6061-T651 Aluminum.

Impact Resistant

In the above photo a foreign object impacted on a PowerShift composite propeller. If the same object  had struck a wooden propeller it would have caused total propeller failure with possible explosive results, in this case the propeller survived and was even repaired safely and satisfactorily.