What is this screw/propellor on the USS Abraham Lincoln?

[KarlGauss]

Here is a photo from today's New York Times showing a scene from the deck of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Much of the picture is occupied by what looks to be a propellor or screw. And, an odd looking one at that (at least to my eyes).

I honestly don't know what it's part of. A plane? Helicopter? Screw from a small craft currently hoisted onto the deck?

I am very curious to know.

Thanks!

[wevets]

It looks like the new E-2D and the old E-2C Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning aircraft have new eight-bladed propellers installed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:E-2C_Landing.jpg

[KarlGauss]

Jeez, two minutes! Did you expect me to wait around all that time?

Many thanks!

[blondebear]

My guess is the 8-bladed propeller of an E-2 Hawkeye.

Rats, missed it by that much!

[Terraplane]

It's the propeller for the AWACS plane behind the people. You can make out the radar dome to the left above their heads.

fake edit: I am so beaten but dammit, I looked up the type of plane, typed all this out, there's no way I'm not posting it!

[wevets]

Sorry. I shouldn't have taken the extra time to run calculations checking the other in the focused-sun-weapon thread and stopped to send messages in a round of Diplomacy. I'll try to do better next time.

[Tom Tildrum]

It's also used for killing vampires.

[billfish678]

It's the vampire chopper upper. See the recent movie documentary if you are still confused.

[Philliam]

What's also cool is having a gal plane captain in the squadron - running a bag of tie-down chains all over the flight deck is no fun.

(Said with the experience of 2 WestPac cruises on 'Ranger' CVA-61 as a flight deck troubleshooter 'greenshirt')

[Dr. Strangelove]

My first extra question was: but where's the rest of the wing? I know that some planes have foldable wings, but I had thought that they usually folded up, so that they'd still be visible at an angle like this.

Turns out that they do indeed fold, but with a weird diagonal hinge, so that they end up pointing straight back but with the chord line oriented vertically.

[Billdo]

OK, I'll ask the follow-up. Why do they have eight-bladed propellers on these AWACS planes? I don't think I've seen them on any other aircraft.

[Absolute]

Originally Posted by Billdo

OK, I'll ask the follow-up. Why do they have eight-bladed propellers on these AWACS planes? I don't think I've seen them on any other aircraft.

Eight-bladed propellers are used on the Airbus A400 (a military transport aircraft). They have also been tested on the C-130 and a few other aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ai...0M_Rollout.JPG

Essentially, a propeller with more blades can handle more power, while being more aerodynamic and efficient than a propeller with fewer blades.